911 Services not available–if you need help call 703-792-6500

MoonHowler

InsideNoVA.com

ALERT (from Prince William County Police Department)

The Prince William Public Safety Communications Center is currently unable to receive 911 call.

If you need police or fire & rescue services, call the non-emergency number at 703-792-6500.

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The 911 situation is totally unacceptable.  It isn’t the first time either. I remember a 4th of July night about 3 years ago when 911 went down.

There has to be a back up plan.  This is one of those examples of cheapest isn’t always the best.  Think about this situation next time you start whining about paying higher taxes.

The County/City need to drop the provider immediately and go with the most reliable, not the cheapest.

You cannot have a situation where there is no way to call fire, rescue or police.  If I were a thug, guess what I would be doing?

It has been this way since shortly after 6 AM.  That is 4 hours of dead time for 911.

Storm Outages in Manassas Area

MoonHowler

According to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Friday’s damaging storm is called a “derecho,” and produces tornado-like damage in its wake.

We really got clobbered.  As of this morning I have no cell phone services, no TV and no house phone.  If we had an emergency we would have to go lie down in the middle of the road.

 

I need someone to call in my outages.  If you read this, please email me so I can give you the phone numbers. (leave me  a message to go read my email.)

 

Meanwhile, please let us know what outages you have.  Any tree limbs?  What’s the news from your neighborhood?  Cargo, what’s Richmond doing?

VA granted reprieve from some of NCLB

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com :

The Obama administration on Friday granted Virginia and four other states relief from the most burdensome provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The news means that schools in a total of two dozen states — including Maryland, which received a waiver in May — will no longer face sanctions if they fail to ensure that all students are proficient in math and reading by 2014.

“We would have loved to have got this done by rewriting NCLB, fixing what is wrong with the law while preserving what is right,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. But with no consensus in sight on Capitol Hill, he said, “we simply felt children couldn’t wait any longer.”

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CNN and Fox News screw up big time

MoonHowler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Washingtonpost.com:

 

Maybe it’s time for the news media to take a deep breath.

In the wake of Thursday’s breathless reporting, and mis-reporting, of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act, a timeout might help. Although the court upheld the law, it was hard to know that as the news broke on TV and online Thursday morning.

CNN and Fox News left viewers, including President Obama, confused with reports that suggested the court had ruled unconstitutional a key part of the law — the requirement that individuals buy health insurance. Those reports quickly made their way to other news outlets and were spread far and wide via Twitter.

Except the information was wrong. Within minutes, the full story emerged.

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The Post’s View: Justice Scalia’s partisan discredit to the court

MoonHowler

The Washington Post’s opinion (in full):

By Editorial Board, Published: June 27The Washington Post

IN ALEXANDER HAMILTON’S memorable formulation, the federal judiciary is “the least dangerous branch.” Unlike Congress and the president, which make and execute the laws, respectively, the courts “have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.” Hamilton assumed that offering judges life tenure would encourage them to augment their modest power with moral authority — the intangible combination of legal expertise, persuasive reasoning, impartiality, independence and solemnity, actual and perceived, that we call “legitimacy.”

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Not so Fast and Not so Furious: Another account of the issue

MoonHowler

 

Wednesday night on Politics Nation, Katherine Eban of Fortune magazine threw a major stumbling block into the GOP’s much-ballyhooed Fast and Furious investigation, in which Republicans are seeking to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.

For her Fortune story, published Wednesday, Eban reviewed 2,000 pages of confidential documents and interviewed 39 people who could shed light on allegations that guns bought by ATF-surveilled “straw purchasers” wound up in the holsters of Mexican drug lords.

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Open Thread…………………………………………Wednesday, June 27

MoonHowler
A week at the beach in Florida during TS Debbie
Tropical storm and hurricane season came early this year.  My family is in Englewood, Florida thiis week and there is no sunny beach.  As shown in the picture, the sun tries to peek through but it isn’t having much luck.
If you go to Florida in the summer or early fall, you risk a hurricane.  There is no avoiding it.  Outer Banks?  Same risk.  It just isn’t as far.  Does anyone have a favorite hurricane story?  I do but ……

Sherwood Forest

MoonHowler
The Banner of Lady Moon and Lady Elena

The past few days have brought some interesting discussion over in Sherwood Forest.  Some of that discussion has made me raise an eyebrow or two and made me think about where I wanted my flag.  My flag is with me right now….and on no man’s plot.  My colors are my own, representing the moon and the wolf.   Elena and I are going to stay out of Sherwood Forest for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.  There are unsubstantiated accusations being thrown around that make us a tad uncomfortable.

We have found that all too often people want to be “in the know” and that sometimes involves people giving wrong information so that they are part of things.  People like to fit in.

Several examples come to mind that might not be correct.  The history of the land parcel (park) known as Catharpin has history that dates back more than  a decade.  Its story deserves its own thread.  Elena will post later.

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Corey Stewart lives in Fantasy Land

MoonHowler

Corey Stewart lives in Fantasy Land.  Apparently he simply cannot separate truth from fiction.  He plays Lucy Goosey with the truth every place he gets his words in print.  Take the Richmond Times Dispatch for example:

But fellow Republican Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said he was gratified that the court upheld a key provision of the Arizona law that requires law enforcement officers to determine immigration status during a lawful traffic stop if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is not legally in the country.

The court upheld the “show me your papers” requirement that police check suspects’ immigration status, but it said the provision could be subject to additional legal challenges.

Stewart said that portion of the Arizona law was modeled after immigration policy enacted in 2007 in Prince William.

“I am thrilled to see the high court uphold common-sense legislation that will help protect the citizens of Arizona just as it has done for us,” he said.

Stewart said that since Prince William implemented the policy, county law enforcement has turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement more than 4,700 illegal immigrants charged with crimes, and there has been a 47.8 percent drop in violent crime.

Does Corey not realize that we don’t have a “show me your  papers” policy here in Prince William County?   I find it rather horrifying that Corey is in that much denial.  Our local law states that immigration status will be determined on all people who are arrested.  It is done through out 287(g) program.   This was a major change from an earlier resolution that arose out of budgetary restraints, supervisor and citizen concern.  The quoted 47.8 percent drop in county violent crime is also a figment of Corey’s imagination.  The Prince William County police statistics simply do not bear his allegations out.  He either doesn’t know the law in his own county or he doesn’t care about misrepresenting the truth.

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Supreme Court strikes down 3 out of 4 provisions in Arizona Immigraton case

MoonHowler

Where is the interview with Jan Brewer? I just want to see her face for a moment. Will she apologize to the President for her rudeness on the tarmac?

There are also civil liberties groups who are suing against this ruling.  This one isn’t over–not by a long shot.

Were there winners and losers?  Probably everyone is going to claim a piece of this pie.

Will this affect the presidential race?  Will it energize Latinos?

 

Is the Supreme Court too powerful and too political?

MoonHowler

Many people have noticed that the Supreme Court, comprised of 9 members, is far too powerful and far too political.  Go back to 2000.  Basically, the Supreme Court decided who was to be  the president of the United States.  9 people chose the President of the United States of America. Today, we are on the brink of perhaps losing health care.  Should 9 people get to make that choice?    Many people are still seething over Eminent Domain and Citizens United.  They feel the High Court has been too far reaching.  There are 100 other examples.

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New Show: Krystal Ball co-hosts “The Cycle” on MSNBC

MoonHowler

Remember Krystal Ball, the Democratic political candidate from the 1st District?  In 2009, a couple of local male bloggers had quite the time at her expense. It seems that some rat bastard had released a few pictures of her and her first husband at a private party.  The pictures involved what the older generation would probably describe as silliness punctuated with a little naughtiness.  It was all in good fun but definitely not something you want to surface during a political campaign.

The male bloggers had all sorts of nasty comments to make, posted everything, knuckled dragged in typical caveman style and were generally speaking, obnoxious male Chauvanist pigs.   There was no thought given to the fact that Ms Ball was someone’s wife, mother, daughter, sister.  Something mildly naughty was turned into “something dirty” and dealt with about like a 12 year old boy might deal with it.  To Krystal’s credit, she addressed the issue, said she wished those pictures were not released, apologised to her ex-husband who she said did not deserve the exposure, and looked the media and audience in the eye, and said, in essence, that  she was not going to allow herself to be treated like a whore over something this silly.

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