The Korean War Memorial is haunting under the best of circumstances. It seems even more so in the snow.
What is the name of our first named snowstorm? Some have suggested Snowquestration. Surely not!
It has snowed “in-town” pretty much all day. It is snowing and blowing but not sticking around too long. The ground and pavement is just too warm. Big clumps are falling off the roof. Probably sliding would be the better verb.
I have told Elena that she and I just have different weather.
Poor Gov. McDonnell has been dissed by CPAC, after being a featured speaker for the past 2 years. He and Gov. Chris Christie are both in the conservative dog house and both were not invited to speak. Why? the broke rank with the uber-cons.
Chris Christie isn’t the only Republican governor getting snubbed by the Conservative Political Action Conference. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was not invited, according to someone close to CPAC who was not authorized to speak publicly.
McDonnell, a potential 2016 candidate, spoke at the conference for the past two years. Like Christie, McDonnell is popular in his state. But he has come under fire from conservatives for backing a transportation deal that raises taxes.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, who hopes to replace McDonnell in the governor’s mansion this year, is scheduled to speak at CPAC. So will several high-profile politicians seen as possible presidential contenders, including Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Anyone whose nickname is Governor Ultra-sound ought to have his Uber-Con cred in permanent form. It seems amazing that the ubers can take it back from you, once it has been bequeathed.
McDonnell and Christie should just head down to Atlantic City and play blackjack or take in a show. They will be in a far better place than surrounded by all those Uber-Cons.
Batten down the hatches and find the snow shovel. We are due to get our first named snow storm of the year. I have looked all over the place. I don’t see its name. Does anyone know?
This snow will not linger around for a week. The weather will be in the 40s on Thursday and it will get progressively warmer towards the weekend.
It will be nice to see some snow…and then it can go away. I hope we don’t get flooding or downed trees.
Schools are closed as of Tuesday night. Its good to see the schools making a decision the night before hand. It gives parents time to make plans.
If you have a good snow pic, send it on and leave me a note. I will try to post it here.
Again, what is this storm’s name?
Apparently many Prince William County residents are extremely concerned about the negative impact of the proposed North/South Corridor, also called the Tri-County Parkway. This roadway will pick up at Dumfries Road and run down the western end of Prince William Parkway. The new road will begin and follow Pageland to Route 50 in Loudoun County. The actual details are still murky. Apparently Supervisor Candland was only expecting a small crowd. Well, instead of around 50, there were 250, at least– standing room only in the cafeteria.
Residents were forced to look at maps that had little information, vague descriptions of how the road will function, and little to no firm dates of when the road will be built. The VDOT segment of the meeting was incredibly boring, of little value and frustrating to say the least.
What was made abundantly clear, was the intent of the road to “move traffic from 95 through to the Dulles Corridor because that is where the state has its priority in the economic engine of Dulles Airport.” Additionally there is a need “to move cargo trucks to Dulles”.
Glenn Beck says he doesn’t like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Why should he?
Christie, after all, has done nothing conservative since his surprising win over Democrat Jon Corzine four years ago – nothing other than declaring war against the most extreme government union bosses, fighting for education reform across the Garden State, spending less in this year’s FY13 budget than Corzine spent in actual dollars in FY08, reforming and keeping afloat the state’s dying public pension and health benefit programs by eliminating COLAs, increasing employee contributions, raising the retirement age while saving the moribund system $120 billion over 30 years.
Who doesn’t see the writing on the wall with this transportation bill! You have roads being approved that will open up rural land, like the north-south corridor, and a convenient new taxing ability by certain Northern Virginia localities in order to build more roads in their jurisdiction.
So, NOW developers will have an excuse to build in undeveloped areas that will need massive new road infrastructure and who will foot the bill for that expense? Hmmm, I imagine we will. And Corey, who is vocally and fervently supporting this new unneeded cargo transportaion road to Dulles Airport, is trying to sell us the snake oil that he won’t tax Prince William County residents? Not buyin’ it folks and I hope you don’t either.
Our Board of Supervisors has been relatively silent on this massive transportation bill and its subsequent taxes on Virginia residents, but let us not also forget, their silence on the north south corridor. How is that road financed? By the Governor’s tax bill. And where is Corey’s outrage……yes, once again, that is crickets you hear.
No, Corey, you aren’t allowed to feign outrage over taxes on one hand while your support a detrimental road that will dissect PWC.
No Corey, you are not allowed to be self righteous over the state daring to give localities the ability to tax residents for roads when you clearly advocate for a road that you know full well will open up all kinds of cheap land for high density development.
I invite citizens to attend the meeting on the North South Corridor this evening, 7:30, at Bull Run Middle School in Gainesville. Stand up against unnecessary roads in PWC and new taxes . Delegate Hugo and Supervisor Candland need to hear community voices first hand.
… [E]xplanations for the nation’s plummeting homicide rate remain elusive, stymieing economists, criminologists, police, politicians and demographers. Have new police strategies made a difference, or have demographic shifts and population migrations steered the change? Could the reasons be as simple as putting more bad guys behind bars, or does credit go to changes made a generation ago, such as taking the lead out of gasoline or legalizing abortion?
Mass shootings such as last year’s searing incidents in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., have put gun and mental-health policies back atop the nation’s agenda. But the narrative of crime over the past two decades runs in a different direction. Law and order has largely vanished as a political issue — in 1994, more than half of Americans called crime the nation’s most important problem; by 2012, only 2 percent of those surveyed by Gallup said so.
The reduced violent crime was jaw-dropping over several decades.
The drop in deaths from firearms and in slayings overall — over the past two decades, homicide declined by 80 percent in the District and overall crime fell by 75 percent in New York City — has come even as the economy has tanked, the number of guns owned by Americans has soared and the number of young people in the prime crime demographic has peaked.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “a troll” on tonight’s edition of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
Maddow was referencing Justice Scalia’s declaration that the Voting Rights Act was evidence of the “perpetuation of racial entitlement,” a remark he made during a Wednesday’s hearing, at which Maddow was present.
Maddow took issue with Scalia’s suggestion that voting was something an individual was entitled to on the basis of his or her race.
“I think he knows how that sounds, and that’s the neat thing about being there in person, is you can see: Oh, actually, he’s a troll,” Maddow said to the applause of the studio audience.
“He knows it’s offensive. He knows he’s going to get a gasp from the court room, which he got. And he loves it,” Maddow continued. “He’s like the guy on your blog comment thread who is using the N-word — ‘Oh did I make you mad? Did I make you mad? Did I make you mad?’ — he’s like that.”
“When we’re all shocked that he said something so blatantly offensive about the cornerstone of the Civil Rights Act, he’s thinking: ‘Oh yeah, I did,'” Maddow said.
Some folks think Rachel was out of order for calling Justice Scalia a troll. The question remains, however, is Scalia a troll? Isn’t a troll someone who goes on blogs to make inflammatory remarks just to watch everyone else go ape-sh**?
Does Scalia make incendiary remarks just to watch the reaction?
BTW, Rachel did attend the Supreme Court session that heard the Voting Rights case.
Oh Megyn, give me a break. Rachel Maddow called it as she saw it, trying to explain why Justice Scalia would make such an offensive remark. It was Maddow’s right to call him a troll, as it was his right to have made offensive remarks.
Megan can be all offended if she wants. Her last line did bother me though. She said that the justices vote their consciences? Shouldn’t they be voting according to their understanding of the law? I know they are only human but surely interpreting according to the constitution has to be the goal.
GOP seen as Principled but too Extreme
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At a time when the Republican Party’s image is at an historic low, 62% of the public says the GOP is out of touch with the American people, 56% think it is not open to change and 52% say the party is too extreme.Opinions about the Democratic Party are mixed, but the party is viewed more positively than the GOP in every dimension tested except one. Somewhat more say the Republican Party than the Democratic Party has strong principles.
