How about those commercials!?
I enjoyed the Mayan end days one.
Predictions?
UPDATE: BOCS MEETING Tues. Feb 7 @ 2 pm
85 Thoughts to “Open Thread……………………………………………….Sunday, February 5”
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I know it’s unAmerican but I’ve been watching c-span 2 – a Book TV interview with criminologist David M. Kennedy, who uses community meetings and interventions to stop youth gang violence. He’s got a memoir out, “Don’t Shoot.” Fascinating.
I did like Madonna’s half-time Liz Taylor/Cleopatra entrance.
There was more patriotism in the Clint Eastwood ad than in any real political ad by either real party I’ve seen all year. I was ready to go kick ass and take names, and charge up the hill. Add in the Fiat girl as a VP candidate and we’ve got ourselves a winning ticket. Sure, she may not speak English, but who among us would boot her for eating saltines in bed.
@CindyB
Me too. / I have never watched a superbowl half-time show before and was happily surprised
at Madonna’s performance.
Obama holds edge over Romney in general election matchup, poll finds
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen, Monday, February 6, 7:01 AM
Boosted by improved public confidence in his economic stewardship, President Obama for the first time holds a clear edge over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general-election matchup, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Romney, who notched his second consecutive victory Saturday by easily winning the Nevada caucuses, continues to solidify his position as the front-runner in the race for the GOP nomination. But as the contest has grown more negative, public impressions of the top Republican contenders have soured, as has the former Massachusetts governor’s standing as a general-election candidate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-holds-edge-over-romney-in-general-election-matchup-poll-finds/2012/02/05/gIQA5JX0sQ_story.html?hpid=z1
No doubt the attacks by his rivals are hurting Romney.
@Starryflights
“Boosted by improved public confidence in his economic stewardship, President Obama for the first time holds a clear edge over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general-election matchup, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.”
I think Obama’s numbers will slide, once this becomes generally known:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2012/02/05/gIQAhIQjsQ_story.html
Projected economic growth of 2% in 2012, dropping to a recession-paced growth of 1.1% in 2013? China is growing at 9% YoY. We will not continue to recover, and will most likely slide back into recession. Employment is a lagging indicator. Unemployment numbers going up are a result of better private sector performance over the last 6 months or so. As our recovery slows, and then reverses, unemployment will rise again, as a result. Of course this will not reflect the real numbers: the BLS doesn’t count those who have quit looking for work, nor all of the baby-boomers who will retire (10K per day). However, if you compare the employed population to the employable population, the jobs market isn’t really getting better. That said, the stats are the stats. The BLS stats will be the measure cited during this election cycle. Fine. Obama promised if he got his stimulis, we’d be at 6.5% unemployment by this time. He hasn’t even come close to this.
Who looks that closely. Who do you have to offer up who is any better, Steve?
Remember Corey Stewart? Remember why we didn’t go charging against him? He probably still hasn’t figured it out. You all don’t have a candidate that you all even like. Why should the indies and the Dems like who is out there?
@Steve Thomas
But it is better than anything the Republicans have come up with so far. Re/Teapublicans keep saying it is President Obama’s fault, but I have one really simply question–who passes the laws and who passes the spending bills? It ain’t the president–at least the last time I looked.
All politics aside–
The facts are that Federal expenditures grew by almost 2/3 under Bush, Jr. Since Obama took office they have grown by less than 20%. Moreover, Federal expenditures have now flat-lined and show no signs of increasing. Obama has been a better fiscal conservative than Bush was. Facts are facts. Here’s the link to the data at the St. Louis Federal Reserve:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/FGEXPND.txt
Here’s the link to the site’s home page:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
The economic data are looking much more solid now, both in output and employment, as well as financial. Bernanke and the Fed have the monetary base under control – it’s barely budged over the past year. This is the key measure of inflationary potential. It’s not “the Fed printing money” as many ill-informed people (i.e., the Glen Becks of the world) like to shout. That phrase is meaningless.
Any bets on what Bernanke is going to say to Congress today?
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2012/feb/06/school-board-no-pay-raises-prince-william-teachers-ar-1669282/
Interesting story.
“Much to the chagrin of the teachers in the audience, Cline said division employees will not only have to go without raises next year, but the following two also.”
@Marin,
It sure isn’t the first time teachers have gone without a raise. Did they get one last year? I don’t remember. There are several ways to look at it. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. Unless the state or the BOCS ponies up the money, it isn’t there. You can cut back employees. Then you would have serious classroom overcrowding. Three years is a long time to go without a raise, especially at the lower end of the scale.
What do I think will happen? I think young people will leave teaching in somewhat higher numbers. Your people who have other skills will go use them elsewhere. Your people approaching retirement age will retire if they have in the years. It really serves them no purpose to stay on, ince VRS is calculated on the past 36 months of service. You most experienced teachers and your least experienced will go in greater number.
Will it hurt kids? Absolutely. Classrooms will be more crowded. Personnel will be spread more thinly. Athletic programs will probably be hurt. Will schools survive? Sure. Just maybe not up to Northern Virginia standards. Will the BOCS ride in the rescue the situation? Probably not. Covington will hang on to his $100k, Corey will go after illegal illigrants and the Lt. Gov. post, and everyone will make up excuses that they don’t want to raise taxes. Well, sometimes you have to.
Here’s the difference: I am taking an objective look at the data, comparing it to historical impacts on previous elections, and making a prediction. Obama’s negatives will rise as unemployment continues, GDP growth slows, and the recovery stagnates. This is CBO data. Not Republican or Democrat pundits giving opinion. With an outlook like this, it doesn’t matter which party hold the Whitehouse. People will vote for someone new in hopes they can change the trajectory of the economy. Y’all are talking about a nomination contest that is still unfolding. Any president, Republican or Democrat, conservative, moderate or liberal, would be punished by the electorate if things are perceived as bad and getting worse. Spin all the jobs numbers you want, when people don’t get the jobs, or still have friends and family out of work, when they are still underwater on their houses, etc. etc. and the CBO is projecting a slide back into recession, folks will vote to change whose in charge.
@marinm
Money for schools and teachers? Forget about it as long as Manassas Ballet, the Wartime Museum and various other and sundry special interests have their hands out. Don’t forget that we’re still bailing out the Hylton Center to pay their debt service after they borrowed and spent more than the orginal agreement with PWC for support. I have no doubt also that Covington will find a way to get at least $100k of our money to the horse riding center that his wife is president of, that belongs to the public, but is restricted to use by everyone. School kids? They and their parents don’t make campaign contributions.
I am not sure we should be supporting the arts at all if schools can’t be supported. I make no distinction between any of them.
What is the money (quarter of a million) for today that was expressed as a shortage? Mom left a note about it last week.
@marinm
And don’t forget the need to keep the supervisors’ slush (aka, discretionary) funds well-stocked.
NTK, I don’t disagree with you.
Another interesting article..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9065998/Girls-13-given-contraceptive-implants-at-school.html
Another WIN for government healthcare!!!
Perhaps there is a need in Great Britain to do this. I tend not to believe everything written in Brit tabloids. Their standards are so different from ours.
@marinm
Marinm – I agree with you and infused my comment with sarcasm. Given the wishes of the campaign contributors, special interests and crony elites in PWC and Manassas, our school kids have to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to spending priorities.
NTK, The bocs also plays games with the tax situation. Since the tax rate and the assessment make up what taxes we pay, there is lots of wiggle room for reindeer games.
Look at the difference in salaries between city and county. $78k? Will Dr. Walts accept the raise in his contract? His pay will get higher and higher while no one else’s does is my guess. He ought to freeze his as long as county employees get no raise.
One question that wasn’t answered is if the county teachers get a step increase. Those at the top won’t but the lower ones might.
Regarding economic forecasting;
“Although we certainly cannot rule out home price declines, especially in some local
markets, these declines, were they to occur, likely would not have substantial macroeconomic
implications. Nationwide banking and widespread securitization of mortgages make it less
likely that financial intermediation would be impaired than was the case in prior episodes of
regional house price corrections.”
Alan Greenspan, June 9, 2005
Facts are that the economy is significantly better off today than it was last summer when so many “experts” were calling for a double-dip recession. Where will we be in November 2012 and how will it impact the election? Perhaps Chairman Greenspan can provide a forecast.
BOCS meeting. Where is Corey? Has he already started campaigning for the Lt. Governor position?
Coreyyyyyyyy?
National Park Quiz
http://my.npca.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=1881&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS
Too bad Cargo is on hiatus. He does well on these things.
BOCS meeting:
zzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzz
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zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Just listing to the Show and Blow section of the meeting. Look at us!!!!
I know how hard some of the county employees work and how over worked others are.
@Need to Know
Figured as much. Would be nice if govt were small enough to do only the things that it should be doing and then try to do them well or (if the stars were to align correctly) do them very well.
I like how the numbers being thrown around for cost per pupil don’t take into account capital costs. 🙂
PWCS needs to look at doing more with less. If they can’t control their budget expenses they ought not be trusted with even more monies.
So we are almost a quarter of a million dollars in the hole for the sesquicentennial. Way to go. That’s more than being a little bit off. Moonhowlings warned of this several years ago.
@marinm
I know that the crony spending I mentioned above doesn’t add up to the cost of a school, but it’s still irritating to see our money wasted like that when it would pay for a few more teachers at least. The main issue is all of the development this Board is going to approve. Just a quick look at VPAP will show that developers bought and paid for the BOCS election last November. They’ll likely get whatever they want with no regard to the cost of schools or anything else.
I’m also tired of hearing about all the jobs being created in PWC. Yes, we are creating many jobs but almost all are low-wage service jobs. Nohe even links the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on his website that shows PWC ranking #16 among the nation’s 323 largest counties in job creation, but ranking #280, not far from the bottom, in wage growth. It also shows PWC third from the bottom and far below the top in weekly wages among the Virginia counties listed. Don’t these guys read any of the details before shouting their slogans out in public? http://www.colesdistrict.org/news/
I’m looking for the kind of jobs to be created here like are created in Fairfax and Alexandria that pay much, much more than the PWC jobs. I don’t think most people in PWC are as excited as Mr. Nohe and other members of the BOCS about these jobs at the mall and fast food restaurants. However, those are the jobs you get when your economic development is based almost completely on building more houses, condos and townhouses.
@Moon-howler
Moon, the sesquicentennial, sorry I forgot that one. How come these “fiscal conservatives” on our BOCS are ponying up a bailout there? This group overspent and went beyond their budget while not earning enough revenue. Their excuse is mainly that the hot weather kept people away. That’s completely bogus, however. They had been selling discounted advance sale tickets for months and fell short from the beginning. I guess this bailout is OK but Obama’s, Bush’s and the Fed’s bailouts are not. Maybe some consistency sometime would be nice?
Read the staff report on this one:
http://eservice.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/agendas/2012/0207/4-n.pdf
It reads one excuse after another. They even come up with a bogus estimate of $20 million “direct visitor impact” based on a multiplier from some tourism marketing council. Maybe we should also use the numbers from the tobacco council to estimate the health cost impact of smoking.
UNBELIEVABLE waste of our taxpayer money to pay for some local elites to enjoy their hobbies.
Enjoying the love-fest going on between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration. I mean absolutely loving it 🙂 Catholic Church, you’re getting exactly what you have been asking for for so many years! I don’t want to hear any griping now!!
@Need to Know
“I’m looking for the kind of jobs to be created here like are created in Fairfax and Alexandria that pay much, much more than the PWC jobs. I don’t think most people in PWC are as excited as Mr. Nohe and other members of the BOCS about these jobs at the mall and fast food restaurants. However, those are the jobs you get when your economic development is based almost completely on building more houses, condos and townhouses.”
Agreed. On the whole I don’t mind housing development and I dislike the idea of the govt telling people what they can and can’t do on their land but housing is not an issue in this county. Jobs are.
Stafford has built up some impressive office space around Route 1 and 610 to support contractor space off Quantico. Sure you see some office space on 234 but that area lacks any meaningful supporting infrastructure – food/other services. I work off of 610 and if I need something – my clothes drycleaned, my haircut, something to eat, shop for a car, whatever – I can do that within a few minute walk/drive from my office. 234? Not so much.
I hate to say this but if I were opening up my own practice… PWC would not be on my list.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
Hi Pokie,
Care to elaborate?
@marinm
Agreed. On its current course, PWC will be good for businesses that serve a residential economy. We’ll get some doctors, lawyers, accountants, barbers, restaurants, dry-cleaners, etc. Those are all good businesses to have, but by themselves don’t create a robust tax base or well-diversified economy. We need the corporate headquarters, high-tech manufacturing and other sorts of businesses that were originally envisioned for Innovation. Recently, the new BOCS even voted to develop a town center (residential, retail, and some office) at Innovation. We’re moving in the wrong direction.
I believe in economic freedom as you do, but that does not mean providing corporate welfare. These developers bought the BOCS seats for most of the current occupants so they can get rezonings, Comp Plan amendments, etc. for their residential developments while passing the infrastructure costs on to you and me. If the developers paid in full for all roads, schools, fire stations and everything else needed to serve the new communities I might see this situation differently. That’s not going to happen. For the developers, it’s much cheaper to buy at least five out of eight supervisors than to pay for the infrastructure and other related costs of their projects. Actually, they did very well this past election getting at least six of the eight supervisors in their pockets. It’s already showing.
For for the next four years watch for May and Principi to vote mostly in the interests of taxpayers. On each of these developer measures, one of the other six will vote as the third depending on the circumstances, ensuring at least five votes to deliver what the development industry paid for during the election. For example, Nohe has still failed to get the four-lane widening of Purcell Road out of the Comp Plan despite massive citizen opposition. He held a town hall on it last night. When that comes up, watch for Nohe to vote with May and Principi so the developers still get what they want and Nohe can say he opposed the Purcell Road project in the 2015 election. Nohe will then do a similar favor for the other five when needed.
The Catholic Church can’t hop into bed with this administration fast enough if the topic is open borders. So now that the same administration makes a ruling they DON’T agree with, listen to them howl! My solution? Remove the Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status….they want to be involved in politics? Welcome to the game, guys!!
@SlowpokeRodriguez
Whip me with a wet noodle! – I agree with Slow.
Remove all churches’ tax-exempt status. Makes no sense to me at all.
No, I’m not an atheist; more likely a deist, but I really can’t see why churches, some of which own incredible amounts of real estate, should not pay taxes. It’s big business.
Regarding the sesquicentennial bailout, someone should point out that one of Candland’s key supporters and now staff members was on the board that went broke and now begs for bailouts. That’s the kind of fiscal expertise we need in our County leadership!
Actually, pokie,, I don’t disagree with you although not exactly for that reason. I would be willing to remove all tax exemption status from any church that gets involved in politics.
@Need to Know
I have nothing against Town Centers and actually enjoy going to Reston TC but I think a TC at Innovation is not the smartest idea – especially when the govt is helping to pay for it.
“I believe in economic freedom as you do, but that does not mean providing corporate welfare.”
Agreed. We don’t have the right mix of development and what we do have ends up costing taxpayers more money than what we bring in. Sometimes I think that anyone that wants to go into Public Service for town/city/count/state government should be required to play SimCity — and win.
I’m still scratching my head over how someone thought Lateef was a ‘good idea’.
@Marin,
Who ever said he was a good idea?
I see no point in the govt helping to pay for anything at Innovation.
Interesting story on how the Bush administration had back-channel interaction with North Korea’s Kim Jung-il through an executive at the right-wing Washington Times newspaper owned by the Rev. Sun Myong Moon who has North Korean investments. Are there no right-wing U.S. media outlets owned by native-born Americans who aren’t funded by shady overseas sources?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/07/the-bush-administration-s-secret-link-to-north-korea.html
@Moon-howler
PWC Democrats?
Not sure. @marin, obviously they were wrong.
Corey Stewart was sick. That is why he wasn’t at the afternoon board meeting.
Moving right along….the entire quarter of a million dollars was part of the consent agenda and got group approved. No discussion unless I seriously missed something.
Citizens warned against these kinds of risks with the Sesquicentennial a year and even longer before it happened. Now it is WE, the citizens of PWC, who must make up the difference. I want to know why this issue was swept under the rug? Sunshine please.
Why must we make up a quarter of a million dollars? The justification is full of excuses, blaming hot weather and other issues one would expect in July.
Citizens should not let this one slide by. Someone wanted to bury it entirely too quickly. The background information sure tells a different story than what we were told. Who approved the $500,000? Didn’t we sit right there and hear Corey Stewart tell Creston Owen NO during a BOCS meeting?
http://eservice.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/agendas/2012/0207/4-n.pdf
@SlowpokeRodriguez
Lots of pro-choicers would agree with you, slow, about the Catholic church.
Actually, I agree with you, remove it from all churches. As of late, I’m not sure any church has been able to keep itself out of politics, and I just have no patience for that.
Moon – This all just goes to show what a corrupt, incestuous place Prince William County is. If you are an elite/part of the in-crowd, you can get whatever you want (i.e., $500,000 for your big party, hundreds of thousands over the years for a ballet with suspect practices, and on and on). If you are a developer with big pockets ready to make campaign contributions you can get whatever you want, including staff reports from the County government saying how wonderful your project is. They’ve succeeded now in loading the leadership of the County Government from the County Executive to the senior staff in the departments with “team players” who will do as instructed by Corey and the BOCS, as they do as they are instructed by their campaign donors.
All paid for by the taxpayers.
Marinm – I don’t have any problem with town centers, per se, either. However, as you pointed out we don’t need one at Innovation, especially subsidized by taxpayers. We need also to hold that land for when good, high-wage employers want to come. They will. The problem is that developing Innovation as it should be developed doesn’t put any money now in the pockets of the residential developers who funded most of the BOCS campaigns.
@DoingTheRightThing
Good point. I had forgotten about her but you are right. Maybe Peacor should see if Bernie Madoff is available to serve remotely from his jail cell as the County’s ethics advisor. That makes about as much sense.
Just a thought……….
It’s MY house, why, because I paid for it.
It’s MY car, why, because I paid for it.
It’s MY computer, why, because I paid for it.
It’s MY country, why, because I paid for the defense, the government, the maintenance, the law enforcement, etc. etc.
To those Occupy folks who don’t pay any taxes………..
It’s YOUR country, why, ??????????????????????
Also, get well soon Corey. I’ll slam him up one side and down the other on policy matters, but certainly hope he is OK healthwise. What would we have to complain about without Corey, Nohe, Peacor, Candland, Jenkins, etc.?
@NTK,
I don’t complain about any of them but Corey. However, I do have replacements.
I am going to seeth over no discussion on the overage for the Sesqui events. What is going to happen in 2013 for Second Manassas? Will the same mistakes be made? When I saw the list of excuses, all I could think of was that those things should have been part of the contingency plans.
@Second Alamo Whoever told you the OWS people don’t pay taxes was wrong.
In the grand scheme of things a quarter million dollar bailout for the Sequi. is largely a drop in the bucket that is the PWC budget, HOWEVER, in light of that bailout, I will get really annoyed (and quite likely very vocal, here I come again Corey) when budget line items that have a direct benefit for the PWC residents are left unfunded due to a lack of funding (see staffing for Silver Lake).
The scarier part of the meeting was the large amount of money that Wally wants to set aside to prop up VRE in the near future. Now before all you Prius driving, TOD loving idealists jump all over me, VRE is not the Long Island Railway, metro, BART, MARTA, etc. It IS a poorly managed, limited capacity, ill conceived, multi-jurisdictional boondoggle that serves as a perfect example of how the marriage of heavy rail and government operations is one of incompatible partners and a long-term drain on the taxpayer.
@MoM
All those drops in the bucket add up. Are we going to do the same thing with 2nd Manassas? I think quarter of a million and think how many new teachers or cops we could have with that.
It seems that every meeting we have to call out someone for stupidity with money. 100k here, 244k there, Who knows where else. Easy come, easy go.
Then there are the discretionary funds where WE give donations in the supervisors’ name.
Here we go again with a quarter of a million bucks!! I don’t by the heat as an excuse for keeping people away. It’s like NTK said earlier, ticket prices had been reduced well before the weather reports were announced. I’ll have to watch the rerun tonight at 7:30.
Side note we were there last night to speak at the public hearing regarding the Fence ZTA. I must say I was dumbfounded that one supervisor said he didn’t know about the work being done on this issue. Well, I call BS!! This has been discussed since last summer at multiple board meetings.
BTW-Does anyone else use yahoo email? I’ve been having major problems for over a week now with emails.
^buy the heat….
Laf:
Still waiting for a call from you, not getting my e-mails?
@Mom
Nope. I’ll give ya call later this afternoon.
@Moon-howler
The City of Manassas is going a little more low key for 2nd Manassas come August. There are reenactors who want to camp at Mayfield Fort and on the Musuem Lawn, and there are a couple of other events in the plan too. There will not be a bus service but a map of the events will be made – thought is the crowd will be about the size the Railroad Festival gets each year.
Keep in mind on the Sesqui the City of Manassas also had to add an additional $123K to the pot. And like PWC, the main reason given was the heat – which I also don’t buy. The warning shot to all the planners should have been when they did that first round drop in estimate as to the number of visitors from 70K to 40K months before the events happened. That and look at historical weather patterns. But do not wail and nash because the economic studies all say what great benefits were received – and I await to see if one year later all the predictions were true.
2012 is the 150th of Second Manassas, not 2013.
It was hot in July. Who could have seen that coming?????