Month: August 2012

“Blue Moon

You saw me standing alone

Without a dream in my heart

Without a love of my own….”

According to ACBnews.com, the blue moon was falsely named because of an article in 1946:

Sky & Telescope, a magazine for astronomy enthusiasts, ran an article in March 1946 that defined a blue moon as the second full moon in a month — but readily admits today that it made a mistake, oversimplifying the four-full-moons-in-a-season definition. The mistake caught on, even though the folklore scholar Philip Hiscock of Canada’s Memorial University of Newfoundland said he could find no references to the two-moons-in-a-month definition from before then. (For the record, the moon is full once every 29 1/2 days.)

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Consensus: We have a free society except for abortion in the case of rape or incest.
Thanks to Samantha for uncovering the ultimate in hypocrisy.

Good bye summer.  Hello school next week.  Hello Democratic Convention.  I don’t know about you but I am getting “conventioned out.”

The Gulf Coast is getting tired of slow moving Hurricane Issac.   Issac brings a new dimension to the word “stalled.”

Kids, it’s time to get back on the “cheese” and head back to school.

This will be Mitt’s night.  The night starts off with his youngest son addressing the convention in Spanish.  I expect that will piss off much of the faithful.

Record your comments below.

The 16 Planks of the Republican Platform:

• A Restoration of Constitutional Order: Congress and the Executive
• Defending Marriage Against An Activist Judiciary
• A Sacred Contract: Defense of Marriage
• Living Within Our Means: A Constitutional Budget
• Federalism and The Tenth Amendment
• The Continuing Importance of Protecting the Electoral College
• Voter Integrity to Ensure Honest Elections
• The First Amendment: The Foresight of Our Founders to Protect Religious Freedom
• The First Amendment: Speech that is Protected
• The Second Amendment: Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms
• The Fourth Amendment: Liberty and Privacy
• The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Private Property
• The Ninth Amendment: Affirming the People’s Rights
• The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life
• Respect for Our Flag: Symbol of the Constitution
• American Sovereignty in U.S. Courts

Each plank is linked to an explanation.

If I ever needed a list of reasons why I couldn’t be a republican or vote republican, I guess I am looking at it right now.  Don, you got my last R vote.  (insider joke)

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Last night, Ann Romney tried to connect her husband to the women.  She spoke of love.  The women at the convention loved Mrs. Romney.  I aam not so sure how well she did with those not at the convention.

Governor Chris Christie tried to connect to a tough guy anti union crowd.  He threw raw meat and spoke about respect.  The crowd loved him.  He nearly forgot to mention Mitt, but the crowd roared.  Public employee hater Scott Walker came along with a similar theme.  He didn’t create quite the roar Christie did, but Christie is a Republican lion.

Tonight another appeal will come out.  Jeb Bush will attempt to connect to the Hispanics, especially in swing state Florida.  He has a tall order.  The Republican party is the party of “Illegal is Illegal.”  Its hard to find a Latino family that doesn’t have friends or family who is here illegally.  Sympathies are usually with the person out of status.  Jeb Bush will also represent the family that no one mentions.  Neither of the President Bushes are at the convention.  President George Herbert Walker Bush is not in the best of health.  His son President George W. Bush has retired from politics.  That leaves Jeb to hold up the old guard of the Republican Party.  Jeb will be busy.

The Washington Post has run a very interesting article on several conservative women from Missouri who still defend Todd Akin, the poster child for no exceptions for rape or incest.  The story almost transports the reader to the land time forgot.  Sharon Barnes and Janice DeWeese were both busy in Fenton, Missouri defending Todd Akin and the life they had chosen for themselves.  According to washingtonpost.com:

They are women who think that they have in some ways become less liberated in recent decades, not more; who think that easy abortion, easy birth control and a tawdry popular culture have degraded their stature, not elevated it. Though the women here were of varying faiths and economic backgrounds, they were white and bound by a shared unease with Obama in particular and liberals in general, who seemed so often to hold them in contempt.

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There was a very interesting article in Inside Nova a few days ago.  Let me refresh everyone’s memory.  The Mayor of Occoquan and Supervisor May,  along with many many residents, opposed the rezoning of Oaks III back in January.  Here is the fabulous op-ed written by the Mayor Porta.

The developer cites two features of his proposal in particular.  First, he notes that he is setting aside a portion of the parcel in a conservation easement.  On closer inspection, however, this appears to be mostly window dressing, as the conservation easement basically covers the portion of the property on which RPAs, slopes, and other features essentially preclude development.  Second, the developer asserts that his project will actually improve storm water management in the area.  What only becomes clear with further analysis, however, is that this assertion is based in part on his offer to fix the problem created by inadequate storm water management on his adjoining commercial property.  In fact, poorly-planned prior projects by the developer are the catalyst for this entire rezoning effort.  By his own admission the developer was originally interested only in purchasing a small piece of the Oaks III parcel to solve the problem of insufficient parking, again on his adjoining commercial property.  Unfortunately, the property owner has insisted on purchase of the entire parcel, which has in turn led the developer to attempt to cram an office building on the site in the hopes of subsidizing his purchase costs.

Let’s fast forward to the present, with the desired rezoning, the Developer has put the land up for sale. So, the Mayor, a multitude of residents, and the district Supervisor were all ignored by a majority of the Board, inlcuding Corey Stewart, who, in his great knowledge of environmetnal stewardship (NOT), approved this development that is now in the process of being sold shortly after it was rezoned.  Apparently, it appears, as though the developer, Ken Thompson, was seeing dollar signs instead of following through with committments he made to the concerned citizens of Occoquan.

There you go, business as usual in PWC.  I always find it interesting that when citizens oppose development for valid reasons, they are always ignored.  I wonder what Mayor Porta is thinking now?

Huffingtonpost.com:

A Republican strategist said something interesting and revealing on Friday, though it largely escaped attention in the howling gusts of punditry over Mitt Romney’s birth certificate crack and a potential convention-altering hurricane. The subject was a Ron Brownstein story outlining the demographic hit rates each party requires to win in November. To squeak out a majority, Mitt Romney probably needs to win at least 61 percent of the white vote — a figure exceeding what George H.W. Bush commanded over Michael Dukakis in 1988. The Republican strategist told Brownstein, “This is the last time anyone will try to do this” — “this” being a near total reliance on white votes to win a presidential election.

Is it possible to get 61% of the white vote?  The men shouldn’t be a problem.  The women might be a very serious problem.  Last time I looked at polls, the break down was 54% Dem, 39% Repub.  Of course, it all depends on which poll you look at and the election is really light years away.  We are still in August.

There is just something about breaking down votes by white and non white that reminds me of a less desirable time in history.

Thanks to Mistress Lafayette for the picture of the  latest Welcome to Westgate sign.  Who do you even call to report this trash?

No Corey, there are no problems over here.  None at all.  Car litter on Sudley Manor Drive is accumulating also.  It must be those using the ball fields and Splash Down.  Actually, it stops after you get through the 3 way stop where everyone in the West end of Manassas and Prince William cuts through to Lomond.

Corey needs to take note that we have our own weiner wagons here in Westgate and yes, there are hoarders in PWC.  Stay tuned.

Its political convention time again.  The GOP dodged an obvious bullet as Hurricane Issac sailed past the Tampa area which the convention will be held.

The news stations are asking Americans if political conventions are becoming a thing of the past.  The networks no longer televise the conventions like in the good old days.  Is the political convention just a see and be seen venture nowadays?  Lots of money is spent.  Will political animals be content to compress their conventions to a day or two?

My guess is that compression of any convention would get in the way of some serious partying and elbow rubbing and that nothing will change.

Meanwhile, how about those hurricanes.  Has we dodged the hurricane bullet or is there more to come this September and October?

From Politico.com:

TAMPA, Fla. — Hundreds of evangelicals gathered in downtown Tampa, Fla., on Sunday afternoon to talk about exactly the things that Mitt Romney wants to avoid this week: abortion, birth control, gay marriage and religion.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition rally drew the expected rock stars of the evangelical movement — Mike Huckabee, Ralph Reed and even Newt Gingrich. Yet few of the speakers talked about Romney himself — the rally was designed to fire up the most red meat, anti-Obama crowd here in Tampa just a few days before Romney accepts the nomination.

How will Team Romney steer away from the issues that the evangelicals deem important and stick to the Romney issues? How does Mitt Romney avoid topics that will only drive more potential voters away and focus on economic issues that so many folks care about without alienating that base? Romney is already iffy with those guys in the first place.

Romney is iffy because of his moderate Republcian governorship in Massachusetts and because of his religion. The evangelical base just doesn’t seem to like him and hasn’t warmed up to him like they did many of the earlier GOP primary candidates.  Most of these Romney watchers aren’t speakers.  That takes care of some of the problem.

Can Team Romney avoid the obstacles? It will be an interesting watch.

Let’s give Romney and Ryan their day in court.  I will agree that they never said anything as flat earth society-like as Akin.  However, let’s not skirt the real issue.  How does the NEW stance of Romney on abortion differ from the stance of Akin?

How does Paul Ryan’s stance on abortion differ from the stance of Todd Akin?

From a legal point of view, I don’t see any difference in Ryan and Akin.