Month: April 2012

The saga of Rainbow Riding continues.  It began with Rainbow Ridings inclusion in a land use deal involving Toll Brothers, Silver Lake, and 400 additional home that Toll Brothers wanted in addition to their original rezoning of Dominion Valley.
The questions begin with why was a small non profit given a seat at the negotiation table back in 2004?  Why was 45 acres of public land “handed over” for free to a small non profit?

Fast forward to today, now Rainbow Riding is asking for an additional 211,000 dollars, almost a quarter of a million in tax payer money.

Has anyone looked online at the financials of Rainbow Riding?  At the end of 2010, which is their last public financial statement one can view, they had 694,749 dollars of cash/cash equivalent on hand.

Why is it while our parks go unfunded, Rainbow Riding is given special access to tax payer coffers?

Silver Lake has YET to see its master plan implemented.  As pitiful the master plan is,  isn’t it only a fair expectation that those capitol improvements be made to parks that service everyone before the Supervisors feels they have the right to redirect precious resources to small non profits?

Our libraries and Community Centers, like Chinn Park, are in dire need of improvements to meet the needs of our growing population.  This is not about the quality of Rainbow Riding, this is about fairness and where tax payer dollars should be directed.

Tom Jackman wrote a great article for the Washington Post today, here are some exerpts.  Please don’t be shocked, Greg and Moonhowlings are in complete agreement on this one!

“They raise my taxes,” said conservative activist Greg Letiecq, “to give it away to a charity that serves people outside of Prince William County,” referring to a recent Board of Supervisors meeting where Fairfax County families stood up to endorse the funding. “It’s outrageous.”

The county board is scheduled to vote today on the $211,000 allotment to the center. It’s a sensitive subject because the recipients would seem to be so worthy, yet seemingly already well-funded.

Part of the resentment comes from Rainbow’s relocation several years ago to Silver Lake, which had a master plan for enhancing recreation. Elena Schlossberg, a land use activist and blogger, said no county money has gone toward that master plan.

“That minimal master plan should be completed,” Schlossberg said, including a picnic pavilion, playground and community garden, “so all citizens have access to Silver Lake, rather than 100 from Prince William County. You have how many thousands of children who could be served by Silver Lake, and by the Chinn Community Center?”

The county supports numerous charitable organizations, including the Red Cross and the Boys and Girls Club. But The Post’s Jeremy Borden reported Monday that 12 organizations, including Northern Virginia Family Service and Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault had been cut to zero.

Schlossberg noted that a charity receiving $33,000 from a local government “is a lot of money. If the county has $200,000 and they want to put that into a grant process so other nonprofits can apply, I think that would be more fair.”

correction:

CountyExecutive’s direction at last week’s markup was to prepare for the Board’s consideration at carryover the following items: 1) Americans at Wartime Museum Capital Donation request; 2) Northern Virginia Conservation Trust funding request; 3) Rainbow Riding capital donation request; and, 4) Route 1 preliminary concept and engineering study.  These funds will not be disbursed as part of today’s budget vote; instead, they will be presented during carryover later this summer for the Board’s consideration. 

 

 

 

 

From the Daily Beast:

Immigration to the U.S. from Mexico has virtually stopped, the Pew Research Center says in a new study released Monday. Citing data from Mexican and U.S. government sources, the study says that a weakened American economy, fewer employment opportunities, and stricter immigration enforcement have combined to keep many would-be migrants south of the border. The numbers have been on the decline for years—1 million immigrants were caught trying to cross the border in 2005, but six years later that number had dropped to 286,000. Constituting the largest influx of immigrants from a single country that the United States has ever seen, about 12 million Mexicans came to the country over the past 40 years.

The Pew Center key findings:

• In the five-year period from 2005 to 2010, about 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States and about 1.4 million Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born children moved from the United States to Mexico.
• In the five-year period a decade earlier (1995 to 2000), about 3 million Mexicans had immigrated to the U.S. and fewer than 700,000 Mexicans and their U.S. born-children had moved from the U.S. to Mexico.
• This sharp downward trend in net migration has led to the first significant decrease in at least two decades in the number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.—to 6.1 million in 2011, down from a peak of nearly 7 million in 2007. Over the same period the number of authorized Mexican immigrants rose modestly, from 5.6 million in 2007 to 5.8 million in 2011.

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More iris from Howler acres, last year’s batch.  My iris come out at different times so the show lasts several weeks.

The pollen comes back with a vengenance tomorrow.  It will be in the ten range.

Who has sprung for the new ipad?  Does anyone own the ipad 3?  So far I have resisted.

For several years Elena and I have been discussing Alanna’s report on genocide and how relevant it still is.  As I sit here listening to President Obama speaking at the Holocaust Museum, I decided to take the plunge, find Alanna’s thread which is almost 4 years old, June 8, 2008, and reposting it.

Read the process of how genocide happens.  Think about it first in terms of the Holocaust and then how it applies in modern countries today.  Then do the really uncomfortable thing and think about it in our own country.  Have we contributed to making someone or a group of someones “others?”  Being an “other” is where it all starts.

This was an uncanny unplanned article on Huffington Post that was discovered AFTER Moon reposted this thread.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-pierson/on-states-rights-and-anti_b_1442997.html

Immigrants–particularly Latinos in both their specificity and generality–are seen as “other” than what some folks–from everyday citizens to those embedded in our national security apparatus–conceive of as “real Americans”, or productive, law abiding members of society. Even though greater than 85% of Latinos are citizens and legal residents, we disproportionately carry the burdensome weight of being illegal as stigma.

So in the case of the contemporary immigration question, specifically Latinos–not entirely unlike the Irish, Italians and Jews in times past–have been dehumanized and demonized as undesirables, as illegals. And it isn’t just those who are undocumented; we are all caricatured as “illegal criminals”. Even our children, who represent roughly a full third of our population, are caste in such stigmatizing terms as anchor babies… dog food… parasites. As Elena Schlossberg cogently stated in a 2007 county board meeting, “They are talking about children! And [politicians] have not taken a leadership role to stop this!”

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June 8, 2008

At the risk of setting off a firestorm, I’d just like to post these 8 Steps that have been identified by an organization entitled – Genocidal Watch, these steps are part of a process that has been identified in cases of genocide. Again, this doesn’t mean we are having or going to have a ‘Holocaust’ experience, but it’s wise to be aware of these steps. So, here it is – The Genocidal Process ‘:

THE GENOCIDAL PROCESS

Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Genocide has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages, but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.

Classification

All languages and cultures require classification – division of the natural and social world into categories. We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have categories to distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and others. We treat different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic classifications may be defined by absurdly detailed laws — the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the “one drop” laws of segregation in America, or apartheid racial classification laws in South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation. Bipolar societies are the most likely to have genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu. No one is mixed. Mixed marriages do not result in mixed children.

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More jerks on the scene:

Politico.com:

You basically have three choices when you’re a politician caught saying something that’s inappropriate or offensive: 1) apologize right away and throw yourself on the mercy of the court of public opinion, 2) strap the helmet on, take a low profile and hope to ride it out, or 3) double down.

John Raese, a Republican running for Senate in West Virginia, has decided to double down.

After POLITICO first reported in this blog Thursday on a speech in which Raese equated local anti-smoking regulations with Hitler’s policy of forcing Jews to wear yellow Star of David badges, he told the Charleston Daily Mail’s Ry Rivard, “I’m not apologizing to anybody or any organization. It’s my perfect right to make a speech about meaningful subject matters in this country.”

Raese, who’s challenging Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, showed no sign of backing down in the face of criticism from national Jewish groups.

“I am not going to be intimidated by a bunch of bullshit,” he told the Daily Mail.

Someone really doesn’t get it.  Why would a building with a no smoking sign be anything like a Jew being forced to wear the Star of David during NAZI occupation?  I thought the Republican clown parade was over?  John Raese has some serious problems with political correctness to the point that he has just committed political suicide. 

Is there any excuse for this kind of political ignorance and stupidity?

Allen West sound just plain foolish.  Good lord, are we now going to revert back to the “red scare” and start having hearings on rooting out the “communists”!

Solidad handled this beautifully.  West is smart enough to realize that actually individually naming names of his colleagues may look untoward so thinks better of taking that final step, which really, in my opinion, solidifies the inanity of his communist blather.

Was Teddy Roosevelt a Communist?  I hope not, but he sure was a Progressive!  He was President during a very contentious period in American history.  Remember the “square deal”?  He was a strong advocate for fair labor contracts and busting up corporate monopolies.   He created the first federal department to ensure the health of food products and safety of drugs.

Lets not forget our first National Parks also and push to protect our natural resources.  Not sure how progress became a dirty word, but shame on West for scraping the bottom of the barrel to insult his fellow congressmen and congresswomen.

Thomas Jefferson was a progressive. Does anyone here really believe the Declaration of Independence was not a “progressive” forward thinking document?

Read about the Progressive Caucus here.

Yesterday was was the day that Jews and others around the world honor the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust.

My Bubbie’s cousin, Izzy, survived the death camps, he is an Auchwitz survivor along with his wife Anna.  My Grandmothers father was from Poland, his brother never emmigrated.  Of Izzy’s entire family, only his two brothers survied, Anna, unfortunately, was the only survivor of her family.

My father created this video.  It tells an amazing story of perseverence, love, bravery, and luck.

Izzy and Anna’s Love Story from A Cut Above The Rest Productions on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/19904869

The password is izzy.

Peter Candland got a good ole fashioned verbal a$$ whuppin’ on Tuesday!

I have to admit, I was pleasently surprised by the turn of events during the budget discussion on Tuesday.  As we all by now, the “main event” was centered around Peter Candland and his incoherent suggestion that we gut the government spending with absolutely NO vision on how to get it done.

He set himself up as the victim being circled by “sharks”.  Really?  Who were the sharks?  His “in the majority republican” fellow supervisors?  He came unprepared with only his silly soundbites. Mike May, in his usual measured way, had tough questions  for Candland.

“Forgive me if I sound like a circling shark,” he began. “It sounds like you talk about reasonable proposals but you haven’t come here today with any of your own.”

On one hand Candland says “I support the 3% raise” for county employees but  offers no feasible way to follow through if his tax rate is adopted.  He looked like a deer caught in  head lights when fellow Board members asked him for specifics on how to run government while keeping the tax rate so low.

Staff and Supervisors have been working on a county budget for months and Candland, last minute, has the gall to suggest everyone start from scratch?  How RUDE!

As we all know, I am not usually prone to compliments for Corey, but whatever his reasons, whether it be his run for Lt. Govenor or whatever, he was terrific and deserves kudos for squashing the ridiculousness of  $1.175 tax rate.

The Gainesville Times reporter, Tara Donaldson, wrote a fabulous article.

Corey gave the final blow to Candland, when, with a raised voice, he said:

 “It’s not responsible” and said supervisors need to act responsibly, “not just sit here and make political points.

We are the 9th richest county in the United States, our schools, our roads, our general infrastructure needs to reflect our financial status.

Maureen Caddigan probably made the most sane comment during the entire debate though.  She said she use to believe that housing paid for itself, but clearly, only new housing in the 650 grand range actually was net positive.  She said that 500 house here, or new housing over there, was putting an incredible burden on the budget, i.e. taxpayers.   Supervisor Caddigan then followed up with the common sense statement that we need more commercial and less housing!

I hope that sentiment holds strong during the debate surrounding the Rural Crescent and its fiscal importance to the County

Will the rain take away some of this miserable pollen?  My car is green.  Everything is green!

Speaking of gardens…..what is this I hear about a biblical Garden of Eden theme in Old Town Manassas on

Battle  Street?  Temptation and the Broken Apple?  Which local politicians will be auditioning for the role of the Serpent?

Who will play Eve?

Feel free to make your nominations.  Hmmmmm….I know who *I* would nominate for the Serpent.

Here is the link for the last open thread.  It contains some still-alive issues readers might want to check out:

https://www.moonhowlings.net/index.php/2012/04/11/open-thread-tuesday-april-11/

It has scrolled pretty far down the page now.

 

Note:  Play video from here at youtube.  Use the link here.   

Forever young.  Dick Clark died today of a massive heart attack.  Dick Clark can’t be dead.

Dick Clark is who pulled us out of the Eisenhower years  despite our parents kicking and screaming.  Dick Clark is who made the jitterbug, the twist, and a number of other teen dances acceptable to America.  He brought us our early rock legends like Fabian,  Dion, the Diamonds, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis.  They appeared right in our living rooms and real live kids from Philly, not Hollywood, danced to the tunes.

Clark stayed with us baby boomers, even though he was there for those a little older.  He produced many music shows and he remained vigil through New Years Eve on Times Square for more years than I am willing to admit.  The past few years were a struggle for Clark. He had suffered a stroke.  What brought him back?  Every year he worked harder and harder with his speech skills so he could host the annual New Years Eve celebration. 

Probably a little part of all of us who have childhood roots in the 50’s  died today along with Dick Clark.  Dick Clark was forever young.  Dick Clark rescued us from the 50’s.  Dick Clark made rock n roll  acceptable.  Dick Clark was just like us, only grown up.  Sorta. 

For now, Dick Clark. [salute]  So long.

 This is your life, Dick Clark.

RIP Dick.