A good day to NOT go to Starbucks

MoonHowler

guns and starbucks

Washingtonpost.com:

Many people who love guns and coffee particularly appreciate Starbucks. In the 12 states with unfettered rights to “open carry” a gun, including Virginia, and the 16 others that are mostly open carry, Starbucks has rebuffed attempts by gun control activists to keep guns out of the national coffee shop chain.

So on Friday, 2-22 (for the Second Amendment), gun rights supporters are holding “Gun Owners Support Starbucks Day,” and will be drinking their joe while openly packing their heat. In Northern Virginia, this is being organized by Ed Levine, who already has an “I Love Guns and Coffee” website (there are two) and mints a guns and coffee challenge coin, seen above. He wants 2-22 to be an annual day of support for Starbucks  by gun owners.

I guess it is a good time to not go to Starbucks.   I don’t like being around strangers carrying weapons.  I know Scout’s argument about being able to assess the environment.  I tend to be more the “you can’t judge a book by its cover” type.  I see no reason to pack heat (unless its your job) in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.

I don’t feel one bit safer seeing someone armed in any store.  In fact, most of the time I leave.  I don’t know that pistol-packing Harry isn’t some crazed nut job who is getting ready to blow my brains out.

Ed Levine of Virginia Defense League is heading up the appreciation day here in Virginia.  He has chosen 2-22 as the official gun owner Starbucks Appreciation Day. 2-22 represents  the 2nd amendment.

Starbucks has taken the position that rather than engage in a political uproar, they will simply follow state law wherever the store is located.  They are probably smart.  They aren’t supporting any political cause, just following state law.  I wonder what home office thinks of the alteration of their logo?  Mr. Levine should not be surprised if he gets a call from corporate lawyers.

 

FreedomWorks: Misbehavior to include fake panda sex

MoonHowler

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From David Korn’s article in Mother Jones:

An internal investigation of FreedomWorks—the prominent conservative advocacy group and super-PAC—has focused on president Matt Kibbe’s management of the organization, his use of its resources, and a controversial book deal he signed, according to former FreedomWorks officials who have met with the private lawyers conducting the probe. One potential topic for the inquiry is a promotional video produced last year under the supervision of Adam Brandon, executive vice president of the group and a Kibbe loyalist. The video included a scene in which a female intern wearing a panda suit simulates performing oral sex on Hillary Clinton. [Author’s note: The previous sentence contains no typos.]

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Corey Stewart: Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Elena

When will Corey stop spreading the misinformation?  It never gets old for him and yet I find refuting his propaganda exhausting!

So, let’s just recap, shall we? Indulge me for a moment as I take us down memory lane.  Only recently, after Romney lost, Corey was oh so eager to impart his wisdom upon Mr. Romney.  You know, all that knowledge and experience he has reaching out to the minority community, oh, excuse me,  just a moment, as a I…….(choke, sputter, cough, gag).

Whew, that was close, I had difficulty catching my breath there.  Where was I?  Oh yes, Corey, the great communicator with the immigrant and minority community.  Here was his sage advice for Mr. Romney, via the New York Times:

“You don’t have to sell out on the issues and suddenly take on the Democratic position on taxes to win the black vote or the Latino vote or the women vote,” said Corey Stewart, a Republican who is chairman of the Board of County Supervisors in Prince William. “But you do have to modulate your tone.”

Mr. Stewart, who is running for lieutenant governor next year, drew some criticism in 2007 by pushing for local crackdowns by the police on illegal immigrants. That has cost him support among many Hispanic voters in the county, but he says it helped him politically among blacks who felt threatened economically by the surge of newcomers.

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Advertized tax rate set at $1.195, increase of 3.5%

MoonHowler

After taking several votes that ended up in a 4-4 tie,  the Board of County Supervisors finally settled on an advertised tax rate of $1.195 which will amount to an average increase of 3.5%.  This rate might go lower, it just cannot go any higher.  The supervisors who supported the higher tax rate that passed were Caddigan, Nohe, Principi, May, and Jenkins.  Stewart, Covington, and Candland voted against this rate.

Good for Caddigan, Nohe, Principi, May, and Jenkins to give us enough wiggle room to look at all scenarios.  Teachers need a raise, a step increase and smaller class sizes. More school resource officers are needed.  We need more police officers.  Basically, if you talk to county employees, you will hear that they often do the work of 2 people.  There doesn’t seem to be enough money to update IT products that would make the job of running a county easier.

Pete Candland gave an interesting presentation that called for increased money for teachers, more police officers and an investment in parks.  What he didn’t explain to my satisfaction was where the money was coming from. He vaguely referenced FTE and carry over funds but I am not sure how that would work.  It sounds like the county needs to fill those empty positions.  Additionally, the increased money for teachers was not an across the board raise or step increase.  Instead it was merit pay.

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Tea Party Patriots play the Nazi card

MoonHowler

 

photo-cropped picture of Karl Rove in Nazi uniform
photo-cropped picture of Karl Rove in Nazi uniform

Politico.com:

A top tea party group is taking its clash with Karl Rove to a new level,  sending out a fundraising email Tuesday featuring a photoshopped image of the  GOP operative in an SS uniform.

“Wipe the Smirk Off Karl Rove’s Face,” reads the subject line of the email,  from Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party  Patriots.

The email features a photo illustration in which Rove’s face is grafted onto a  photo of a uniformed officer in the Reichsführer-SS, an elite rank during Adolf  Hitler’s Third Reich. The lower left-hand corner of the photo features the  inscriptions “Reichsführer-SS” and “K. Rove,” and appears to match a photo of SS  Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.

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Open Thread………………………………………..Tuesday, February 19

MoonHowler

wolvesThe wolf is not too far off from being man’s best friend.  Wolves  were listed as endangered species in 1973 and were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park and Idaho.

Beginning in 2011, the federal government turned wolf management back over to individual states.   Now the wolves are being hunted.  It remains to be seen what their fate will be.

PWC: Nixon and Andrew Johnson out, Lincoln and Washington in

MoonHowler
One Bad Dude!
One Bad Dude!

Every once in a while, I hear something so absurd that I have to savor it…just for the humor.  Corey continues to entertain.

There has been  talk for some time  in the Stewart budget proposal, about doing away with 2 federal holiday observances for county employees.  The two holidays were Columbus Day and Presidents Day.  From what I was able to gather, this was just the final shot to already bad morale in the county.  The employees didn’t like it.

Corey announced today in the BOCS meeting that he would not be present during Supervisors Time but that he had a proposal.  Naturally he butt in line and outlined his wants, although not at the appropriate time.  He suggested that the supervisors agree to not observe Columbus Day or Presidents’ Day as county holidays.  He then said  that it was great to observe Washington and Lincoln but it also meant that one would have to observe all the presidents like Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon.  He then proposed  giving back the holidays to the employees on Lincoln and Washington’s actual birthdays.

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Treasures from the Sky

MoonHowler

A small town in Siberia collects the many small rocks that fell from the sky after the meteor explosion in Siberia last week. Scientists worry that the collectors are damaging scientific evidence. The towns people are just glad to have something to help out. It looks like hard times are not a stranger to this area of the world.

The children are just like children everywhere. The cold doesn’t seem to bother them but I am still cold after watching the video.

The Sequestration

MoonHowler

The dreaded sequestration is almost upon us.  It is supposed to take effect on March 1–next Friday.   There seems to be a stalemate.

Some people think it is OK and that will reduce spending.  The Sequester is for people who make NON-decisions.  It will emasculate our military and make our nation vulnerable.

It will not touch most Medicare or Medicaid and it won’t impact Social Security.  However, it could crush NoVa as defense contractors let their people go.

What do YOU think will happen?  Will the Sequestration  happen or is this another case of brinkmanship?  Will thousands lose their jobs?  Will the economy go into recession?

More importantly, why can’t Congress get its act together?  How do you ink Sequestration will affect us here in Northern Virginia?

 

Teachers to attend BOCS Tues to ask for tax rate that supports schools

MoonHowler

public education

Prince William County teachers plan to attend the BOCS meeting tomorrow en mass.  Prince William County teachers have not had a step increase in 3 years.    They are not expected to get one until 2016.  They have had a couple of very small raises.  They will once again ask for the supervisors to set an advertised tax rate that sustains a teacher raise and reduced class sizes.

Teachers want  the Supervisors to set a tax rate high enough to accommodate a step increase, raise, and reduction in class size.  The uninformed often wonder why teachers don’t approach the PWC School Board for this raise and reduction, rather than the BOCS.  They do.  However, school boards, in Virginia, do not have the power to tax so they must get the funds from the governing body, in this case, the Board of County Supervisors.   The BOCS sets the tax rate and so they are who the teachers must appeal to.

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The Outer Beltway….A Colossal Mistake for PWC!

Elena

So my question is, while Corey bloviates about saving taxes, yadayadayada, what is he doing about saving tax payer money when it comes the creation of the outer beltway, a major road that will  be used as a cut through for trucks to Dulles?

I question why allowing the state to use PWC , like a cheap one night stand for developers,  would ever be our best interest? Has Innovation been forgotten, is she now the too old and unattractive for commercial?  The Bull Run Observer had an article in their paper, giving number for jobs that had been added by companies.  It was in single and double digits, my friends!  The grand total was a little more than 100 jobs.  In a county of 400,000 I was embarrassed.

Here are some basics from Leesburg Today.

The latest version is the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s designated Corridor of Statewide Significance, called the North-South Corridor, which would link I-95 to near Dumfries to Rt. 7 east of Leesburg. Options to develop a four- to six-lane road that would provide a new western access to Dulles Airport has been under study for the past year.

In Prince William County, detailed planning already is under way to extend the Prince William County Parkway from its I-66 terminus to Rt. 50 in Loudoun, including a Manassas Battlefield bypass that would have north-south traffic skirt the western edge of the national park along Pageland Lane and Sanders Lane. That road would link to Northstar Boulevard and then to Belmont Ridge Road in Loudoun. From there, an eastern spur, either along Rt. 50 or to the north, would move traffic to Rt. 606 and Dulles Airport.

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PWC, A National Model for the Tone of Immigration Reform?

Elena

The Washington Post has a fairly extensive article in the paper today on the journey PWC took regarding our very contentious immigration fight in 2007.

I look back at the time with many different emotions.   We had a unique opportunity when Eric Byler, a Gainesville resident and film maker, was able to take us along, front row seat, on our immigration battle.  There was little room for real discussion and debate.  Instead, we had outside influences like FAIR pushing their agenda with the help of eager politicians like Corey to mis-use this community issue.  The videos were like a diary, no filters- -they were real time events we could all observe.

Are there lessons for the Federal Government to learn from the struggles of Prince William County?  Yes, don’t do what we did.  In the end, there was no real solution to the problems in the community regarding the influx of new immigrants, whether their status was legal or illegal, the only end result was that during the height of the debate, many left in fear, and others left as a result of the economic downturn.

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7 Legislative days until Sequestration

MoonHowler

navy

That’s right, in 7 Legislative days the Sequestration will take place. The Sequestration calls for $500 Billion dollar cuts to Pentagon spending and $700 Billion dollar cuts to non-pentagon spending.

How did we get to such a point with something so dangerous? The truth of the matter is, everyone expected that no one would let it happen.

The road to Sequestration started in July, 2011, when tea party Republicans attempted to block raising the debt ceiling, something which is done under every presidency. That catalyst set a series of unfortunate events into motion. First off, S & P down-graded our credit rating. Not by much, but a little. The stock market took an adverse reaction and many of us lost tens of thousands of dollars.

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Voter id: Virginia gives, then takes away

MoonHowler
Long Lines IN Reston, VA
Long Lines IN Reston, VA

Washingtonpost.com

 

Last year, the General Assembly passed a law to close a loophole that had allowed Virginians to vote without presenting identification. But the law also greatly expanded the list of acceptable IDs to include utility bills, bank statements, government checks, paychecks, concealed weapons permits and student IDs.

Many of those forms of identification would be removed under HB1337, leaving voter registration cards, Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, government-issued IDs and photo workplace IDs as forms accepted at the polls.

SB1256 would apply a stricter standard, requiring that voters present photo identification. Voters would need a government-issued photo ID that includes their address, such as driver’s license or passport, a photo ID from a Virginia college or university, or a workplace ID bearing a photo. As part of the bill, the commonwealth would provide, free of charge, voter registration cards with photographs. The current registration cards, which do not have photos, would no longer be accepted.

Republicans pushing for tighter ID standards cited the need to protect the integrity of elections. They pointed to an undercover 2012 campaign video in which the son of Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) can be heard discussing how a utility bill could be used to commit voter fraud. The office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and Arlington police investigated but did not charge the congressman’s son, Patrick Moran.

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