Prince William County Police Officer killed on Route 28

MoonHowler

All of Prince William County mourns the loss of Officer Chris Yung who was killed ina  traffic accident this afternoon.  The details from  WTOP.com are as follows:

 

WASHINGTON – A Prince William County police officer has been killed in a car-motorcycle crash in Bristow.

Officer Chris Yung, 35, who had been on the force for seven years, was responding to a separate crash on his department motorcycle at the time of the 2 p.m crash Monday.

Based on preliminary information, a minivan made a left turn into a shopping center and crossed in front of Yung, who was traveling the opposite direction, on Nokesville Road, near Piper Lane, Prince William County police say.

Yung was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Washington Post also carried limited details of this tragic accident.  This site will update as information is released.

Meanwhile, our thoughts and prayers go out to friends, colleagues  and family of Officer Yung.   I know it is a very sad day for the PWC Police Department.  I don’t suppose anything prepares you for losing one of your own.  That’s a call no officer wants to hear!

 

Tribute to Dick Clark

MoonHowler

dickclarkbust_320x245Webpronews.com:

A two-hour special will air at 8 pm EST before the yearly countdown show begins.  Titled New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Celebrates Dick Clark, the show will be hosted by Jenny McCarthy from Times Square, and by Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie in Los Angeles.  It will feature American Bandstand clips and other famous Dick Clark moments from the past half-century.  The performances will reach back as far as Johnny Cash in 1959, Sonny & Cher in 1965, and The Doors in 1967.  Other featured artists include ABBA, Beach Boys, Blondie, James Brown, Neil Diamond, Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Stevie Wonder.

Though Dick Clark rang in the new year on network television for four decades, a stroke in 2004 left him unable to perform his hosting duties

 

No one tried to make a comeback more than Dick Clark.  My heart ached for him as he tried to articulate on New Years Eve shows after his stroke.

Dick Clark has often been called America’s teenager.  No one was more dedicated to kids and to their music than Dick Clark who had a 50 year career in Rock ‘n’ Roll.  If you are old enough, you recall the Philly kids dancing on American Bandstand after school every day.  Many stars got their start right there on Clark’s stage.  Kids today have no clue how rudimentary rock n roll was back in the beginning.  Most of the bands and stars started out in garages.

Dick Clark deserves all the recognition America can give him tonight.  Without Dick Clark there really would be no music that we now call Rock ‘n’ Roll.

John Boehner: We’ve done the best we can

MoonHowler

Oh bull–snort. The Republicans have tried and succeeded in destroying the economy and doing irreparable harm to the middle class. They have declared war on senior citizens and have tried to throw them under the bus so they can take care of the 2%.

Huffingtonpost.com:

During an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama said that Republicans would have to shoulder the blame if a deal is not reached ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

“We have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over. They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers,” Obama said. “[S]o far, at least, Congress has not been able to get this stuff done. Not because Democrats in Congress don’t want to go ahead and cooperate, but because I think it’s been very hard for Speaker Boehner and Republican Leader McConnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest Americans should go up a little bit, as part of an overall deficit reduction package.”

Later on the program, New York Times columnist David Brooks backed up the president’s assessment.

“Most of the blame still has to go to the Republicans,” Brooks said. “They’ve had a brain freeze since the election. They have no strategy. They don’t know what they want. They haven’t decided what they want.”

The bottom line is, the Republicans can’t pass their own bill.  The Democrats aren’t perfect but they outshine the clown squad by light-years.  Here we go, off the cliff.

Local football player murdered

MoonHowler


———————————————————————————————————————
While we all mourn the deaths of children in Newtown, Connecticut, some of our own are being sliced down, right here locally. Zavier Stringfellow was murdered this past Friday night  by another local man.  Stringfellow was a football star at Battlefield High school and  graduated in 2011.  He  was a sophomore at  Ferrum College where he played football for the Ferrum Panthers.

Stringfellow   was found dead in his van in Fairfax County. The cause of death was determined to be from stabbing.  Johnny E. Bonilla of Gainesville has been charged with his murder. The two who did not know each other were supposed to meet Friday night. The meeting ended in a struggle and the death of Stringfellow.  The reason for meeting has not been released.

Things like this aren’t supposed to happen to our kids. This young man had his life ahead of him.
He was popular and a leader amongst his peers. How do we ever understand something like this?

While the murder weapon wasn’t specified, it obviously wasn’t a gun. We probably need to remember that guns are not the only “tools” that can harm our children. We assume that football players are big guys who can take care of themselves, or can they? This young man was a defensive lineman. Those don’t come in welter-weight sizes.

I close out by wondering if any of us are safe. Just when we thought we had it all figured out.

Who is Senator Ralph Northam?

MoonHowler

Who is Senator Ralph Northam? I kept getting email from this dude saying he was running for Lt. Governor. I ignored him. Geezz. I just got over one election. This guy is persistent so this morning I looked him up. He is my new Virginia hero. (sorry Corey and Ken.) Senator Northam is the junior senator from Norfolk who busted up the notion that ultra-sound was just another walk in the park.

Senator Northam grilled the ultrasound bill’s author, Senator Vogel of Fauquier County until she had to admit she really didnt know about those ultra sounds–the very bill she had introduced for every woman seeking an abortion in Virginia.

Senator Ralph Northam is now running as a Democrat for Lt. Governor. I expect he will definitely get my vote, just for the grilling he gave Jill Vogel.

Death of the tea party mentality

MoonHowler

vote them out

Washingtonpost.com:

The Gadsden flag, which flew proudly over the 2010 midterm elections, now lies in tatters — rent by internal disagreements, losses among its most visible standard-bearers and a growing sense that the tea party movement, which once looked like it could transform American politics, will soon be nothing more than a blip in the country’s collective memory.

The movement’s journey from boom to bust is the story of American politics writ large. The tea party’s ups and downs (in 2012, mostly downs) highlight some of the key forces shaping today’s battles — from the fissures that threaten to destroy the Republican Party to the perils of a leaderless or multi-leader effort to the difference between proving a point and winning.

I never liked the idea in the first place.  I recognized some of the old crowd who were were just putting on different hats.  I don’t trust groups that have no head.  If they screw up, i want to be able to go to someone to complain.  Failure to provide any kind of structure just proves to me that the group wanted to avoid assuming any responsibility.

Now those folks who got into office on a wish and a prayer are holding the rest of us hostage.  They don’t carry the wishes of the American people, yet they hold us all hostage to their antiquated, outdated way of thinking.  They cannot return to the past.

Tea party, time to sit down and get out of the way of progress.  Enough is enough.  You will not win.

Your political point is destroying my economic security.  Therefore, I consider you my enemy.  I stomp on your stolen flag.

Downton Abbey: something to look forward to

MoonHowler

The new year seems pretty grim.  Most of us don’t look forward to the new taxes that are looming.  Some of us will pay thousands more in taxes.  Our investments will be taxed, our pay roll taxes will increase, and all the tax brackets will rise.  I just looked at the changes tonight and it literally made me sick.  Thank you Republicans.  I would rather not have to pay these.  98% of us would rather not have to pay these.

Maybe this Republican horror can be sweetened with the start up of season 3 of Downton Abbey.  If you have never watched, it is a treat to behold.  January 6 is the start of this highly acclaimed show on PBS.

 

Watch Downton Abbey: The Cast Preview Season 3 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

 

 

Republican civil war stymies the House: What are they doing?

MoonHowler

Some House Republicans are out to destroy the country’s economy.   I can’t think of what else it could be.   The stock market finally is giving up the ghost, despite a valiant effort to stay afloat until the end of the year.  Yesterday stocks went into a tail spin.  The outlook for today isn’t much better.

Washingtonpost.com:

Wall Street is finally waking up to the troubling prospect that lawmakers may not reach a deal to avert the “fiscal cliff” before the new year, with stocks swinging dramatically Thursday in response to news from Capitol Hill.

Financial markets had been climbing in recent weeks on the expectation that President Obama and the Congress would reach an agreement, adding further momentum to an economy that has been gaining strength.

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Rocket Launchers? WTF!

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com:

beck rocket launcher ted soqui.JPG
Ted Soqui for LA Weekly
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Yesterday’s LAPD gun buyback was so successful that two-hour waits and gift-card shortages were reported.

The department says it picked up 75 assault weapons as part of its no-questions-asked effort that saw $100 dollar cards handed out for handguns and long guns and $200 for the kind of rifle used in the Newtown tragedy. The LAPD says 901 handguns, 698 rifles, 363 shotguns will also be destroyed.

Good stats. But this is the one that gut us saying WTF:

Cops picked up two — count ’em two — rocket launchers (!) (and not one, as other outlets are reporting), an LAPD official with close knowledge of the program told us. Holy hell why do people on our streets have military grade rocket launchers?

Why does anyone need a rocket launcher in this country?  I have no answers.

 

What’s at stake?

MoonHowler

cliff

 

From the Washington Post.

All this to protect the rich?  What a bunch of fools.  Someone has drunk too much kool ade.

Let’s look at the reality.  We are coming out of a recession.  Can we afford to do a nose dive right back in?

Who are these Republican losers who refuse compromise?  Send them packing.  Yes, I trust Obama, not the trogladytes who are running us over the cliff like the natives used to do the buffalo.

Should Sequestration go into affect, those losers will have thrown their party to the wolves.  The Republicans will forever own the financial disaster we will be mired in.  There will be no forgiveness.

The Department of Homeland Security: Perspective

MoonHowler

homeland security

Many people feel more comfortable with canine support rather than guns.

Take my house, for example.   When the mailman or other delivery people approach my porch, the hounds of hell cut loose.  They make one hell of a racket.  You can often hear me hollering and cussing at them.  I sound demented and crazed.   What person would want to break in my house.  There is no warm fuzzy feeling.

I can’t have a gun now.  I would shoot the “homeland security.”  I have already threatened to buy a shock collar for one of them.

Your response to canine security?

 

Elvis got it….

MoonHowler

Today the term “ghetto” takes on all sorts of meaning not around when Elvis sang his hit “In the Ghetto” in early 1969.  Today, if we say something is “ghetto” we probably mean urban black.  Not so, back then. Up until that recording,  Ghetto was more universal, had its roots in European oppression, but still spoke of community and way of life.  Ghetto soon evolved into meaning urban inner  city in America, without much hope.

As we all settle and adjust to yet another mass murder in our country, there is something else to consider.  As shocked and rattled as we are by Gabby Gifford’s’ attack, the Aurora Theater massacre, and now the Newtown, Ct murders, we are overlooking how many little children are killed by guns yearly in the inner cities of our nation.

These little children are just as innocent as those 5, 6, and 7 year old babies were in Newtown.  Their parents are as horrified and shocked and without consolation as are the parents of the dead in Newtown.  The inner city parents can make no sense of wanton killing either, much less the loss of their child.

The inner city kids who have died didn’t have the right address.  They didn’t come from a nice neighborhood or have expectations of non-violence.  Or did they?  No one expects their little child to be gunned down or to catch a stray bullet in his stroller or his mother’s arms.

We need to think about these children also, not just the children of Newtown.   These children have just as much right to safety, and yes, to life,  as the little Connecticut children.  How many innocents will die this year while we all babble on in our middle class accents?  One is too many.  These children are not expendable either.  Yet nearly 300 little kids have died in Chicago in three years.  The gun debate must include them.

Elvis Presley got it over 40 years ago.  Apparently not everyone does, even today.

 

Republican delegates call for armed officers at elementary schools

MoonHowler

sro

From washingtonpost.com:

Republicans in the House of Delegates, responding to the mass shooting last week at a Connecticut elementary school, are working on legislation to provide funding for armed officers at Virginia elementary schools.

The measure would expand an existing school resource officer grant program, now mostly used for high schools and middle schools, GOP leaders in the House said Thursday.

“Today, we are announcing our intent to expand funding for a school resource officer grant program to encourage the creation of school resource officer positions in Virginia elementary schools,” Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said in a written statement. “This is a critical step toward making sure all of our schools are as safe as possible.

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