Month: May 2013

According to the National Park Service, regarding LBJ Grove on the Potomac:

 

Shortly  after Lyndon Baines Johnson died in January 1973, some of his friends began to  consider creating a national memorial to the 36th president of the United States in Washington, DC.  They decided that a grove of trees, a “living  memorial,” would be a fitting representation of a man who valued nature in his  personal life and supported environmental protection in his presidency.   Lady Bird Johnson selected Columbia Island,  lying between the George    Washington Memorial Parkway and the Boundary  Channel, as the site.  The LBJ Grove  Memorial Committee raised more than $2 million in donations from people all  over the United States.  Noted local landscape architect Meade Palmer  worked closely with Mrs. Johnson to plan the grove, which opened on April 6,  1976.  The memorial grove has two  sections.  The commemorative area,  surrounded by a grove of pine trees, focuses on the life, goals, and  accomplishments of Lyndon B. Johnson.   The second section consists of a broad grassy meadow encircled by a  gravel path for strolling and framed by trees.   Intended to provide physical and spiritual rejuvenation, this part of  the grove also reflects the solace Johnson found in nature and the outdoors.  The grassy meadow, especially set aside to  provide a peaceful setting for people to sit, walk, and relax, is in keeping  with Johnson’s legacy of trying to ensure that all Americans could enjoy what he  valued.

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What I find fascinating is that the lead up to the Iraq war, with the complete fabricated threat of “yellow cake” and “centrifuge” tanks or whatever they supposedly were, but were actually NOT, was never even a blip on the radar screen to republicans.

Cohen wrote a great op-ed, tongue and cheek, on the Benghazi Syndrome.  Anyone remember all the investigations into  Clinton?  Is this the path we are headed down?  Benghazi was a horrible tragedy, their has been enough investigations, we know there was a screw up and it isn’t about stupid talking points, it was about lack of security.

Benghazi Syndrome is a grave malady of the noggin, the symptoms of which are a compulsion to grossly exaggerate matters and to compare almost anything to Watergate (see Watergate Syndrome, DSM-IV). Patient Zero in this regard is Sen. Lindsey Graham, a usually affable Republican from South Carolina who has suggested that the Benghazi episode warrants an investigation by a special congressional committee, just like Iran-contra and — drum roll, please — Watergate.

As a nation we invaded Iraq under false pretenses , sacrificed thousands of American lives, spent untold BILIONS, and for what?  To spread democracy.  How is that working out, really great in Egypt, where the religious Muslim Brotherhood is now in control.  Fabulous, just fabulous.  To this day, I remain shocked that the Republicans showed NO interest in finding out how such a colossal mistake was made, how we ended up invading a country that had NOTHING to do with 9-11.

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Finally common sense may prevail for Manassas City Republicans, I wish they could export some of that to Congress!

Since when was investing in your “home” a waste of money?  We invest in new appliances when they break, new cars when they begin to cost more money then what they are worth, new roofs when they leak, etc etc!

Since when is allowing your community to fall apart a conservative value?  Good for the Manassas City Republicans for advocating investment.  Keeping your community first class requires money, requires forethought, and requires a plan of action.

The Manassas City Council passed 4-2 one of the city’s biggest real-estate tax increases in years on Monday, generating dollars to begin a series of capital construction projects city leaders say are needed.

The $100.3 million fiscal ‘14 operating budget, which the council approved, will pay for sidewalk widening in the town’s historic Old Town business district, a new elementary school and drainage improvements, among other projects.

 

TEA Party politics has no place in running government.  Is there some waste in government, well yes, no one denies that reality.  But TEA party politics has a false foundation that a society can survive with little to no government intervention.   Get rid of the EPA, get rid of the federal income tax, get rid of investment in science and medicine, stop funding the ARTS, allow bridges and roads to crumble, allow healthcare to be a privilege as opposed to a right, etc etc.  What is left to ensure that a community can thrive?

Here are the questions I have.  What makes a cohesive society?  What are the values of  a “community” and how are those values outwardly expressed?

How do we ensure that individual progress can also support community success ,which, in the end, benefits everyone!

 

 

 

 

Twas in the merry month of May…and green buds all were swelling…

Many hold May 1 as a time to celebrate the rites of spring.  May Day became a more modern custom from ancient pagan practices as well as traditions  from rural society.  Today, at least in suburbia and urban areas, not much is made of May Day.

Just for a day, it can be a magical time when cattle jump over bonfires and the young  and the not so young make merry far into the night.

Merry Beltane!

 

New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is caught in an election-year struggle between Democratic lawmakers pressing for a crackdown on nonprofit political groups and conservative organizations accusing the tax agency of conducting a politically charged witch hunt.

In recent weeks, the I.R.S. has sent dozens of detailed questionnaires to Tea Party organizations applying for nonprofit tax status, demanding to know their political leanings and activities. The agency plans this year to press existing nonprofits like American Crossroads, on the Republican side, and Priorities USA, on the Democratic side, to justify their tax-protected status as “social welfare” organizations, a status that many tax professionals believe is being badly abused.

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An incident at a Loudoun County library has caused  an ADA violations charge to be filed by  the mother of an adult with Downs Syndrome and autism.  It seems that the daughter had an emotional outburst over being told she could not check out any more books.  The Washington Post reports:

…when her 25-year-old daughter, Shannon, who has Down syndrome and autism, had an emotional outburst at a Leesburg public library, she was not surprised. But she was surprised, she said, at the library staff’s reaction.

While Aase was trying to calm down her daughter, she said, an employee of Rust Library demanded that Aase remove her daughter from the building. Then, Aase said, the employee threatened to do so herself. After that, she threatened to call police.

What could have been a passing tantrum has now become a fight over the rights of the disabled, a fight that Aase, well versed in such matters, has vowed to continue. She has filed two complaints under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) — one with Loudoun County and one with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Loudoun officials, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters, said they could not discuss the March 15 incident described in Aase’s complaint.

Loudoun County cannot discuss this case because of confidentiality so that means we only are privy to one side of this dispute–the side of the mother who is filing the charges.  The Washington Post did report that Loudoun County reviewed the complaint and  “concluded that there had been no ADA violation and that “personnel acted within the parameters of Loudoun County Public Library policies.”

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It seems that Boston Marathon bombing suspect has been laid to rest right here in the Old Dominion, near the birthplace of our famous favorite son, Secretariat.  (I refuse to recognize him by name.)

At first I  was ready to blast the Governor, before I read the article.  Come to find out, he had nothing to do with it.  It seems that some good Christian  woman, Martha Mullen,  felt mercy.  According to the Washington Post:

“My first thought was, Jesus says love your enemies and not hate them after they’re dead,” Mullen, a Richmond mental health counselor and seminary school graduate, said Friday.

“My second thought was, okay, we can bury Adam Lanza, you know. Or the guy who shot up [Virginia] Tech,” added Mullen, 48. “And this guy for some reason is different. And the only difference that I can tell is that people think that he’s a terrorist or he’s a foreigner or he’s Muslim.”

Her third thought: Maybe she could help. With a flurry of e-mails and calls to faith leaders in Richmond and police officials in Massachusetts, she wound up facilitating Tsarnaev’s burial at a small Islamic cemetery in Doswell.

Having reached out to Jewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders, as well as her own Methodist pastor, Mullen hoped that Tsarnaev’s burial in a plot she located in central Virginia would demonstrate “the peaceful side of faith in action.”

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From politico.com:

Republican strategist Alex Castellanos called the connection between Benghazi  and Clinton’s political future easy — and completely justified.

“Remember when Hillary described the Clinton presidency as ‘two-for-one’? Now  it’s two-for-one again: If Republicans hold her boss accountable for his failure  in Benghazi, Hillary’s political future is tarnished,” Castellanos said.

He added, “Hillary Clinton had the misfortune to be Secretary of State for a  weak and vision-less president on whose watch the world has unraveled. Then Mrs.  Clinton made three mistakes of her own: one, she didn’t protect the people under  her care in Benghazi. Two she said ‘what difference does it make?’ And three  she’s allowed a cover-up in her own State Department. Her political future is  being decided now, as Congress investigates the Benghazi scandal. Three strikes  and she’s out. It is increasingly looking like the only president named Clinton  may be Bill.”

Seriously.  Who is Alex Castellanos?  What turnip truck did he just fall off of?  How old is he?  Doesn’t he understand about women, minorities, and everything Clinton?  Have at it, Alex.

Does this pup think that what he says will matter when it comes to voting for a Clinton or for Hillary?  It turns out the pup is a little long in the tooth.  He is in his 50’s.  What has he missed about the American people and the Clintons?  He was a top media adviser to George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign and Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.  Maybe that explains it.

Keep talking, Alex, keep talking.

 

Semi-kudos for Prince William County BOCS for restoring the DORM program to the regional jail.  The DORM program deals with drug  rehabilitation as well as other goal setting plans for the inmate.  Nationally, the program has a 70% success rate, in that 70% of the program participants have not been re-incarcerated within three years.

According to Jeremy Borden in the Washington Post:

Prince William County supervisors restored the regional jail’s substance abuse treatment program Tuesday after weeks of lobbying from top law enforcement officials, judges and social service advocates.

Supervisors had cut the drug DORM (Drug Offender Rehabilitation Module), a savings of $607,000 a year,  to help pave pave the way for an agreement to a fiscal 2014 budget. But support remained for the program, and supervisors said they would try to find a way to restore it.

They did so unanimously by cutting a new deputy county executive’s position at about $211,000; $140,000 in funds used to supplement the state-mandated county health department; and $180,000 that was previously unallocated, in addition to other, smaller cuts. Supervisors also used those funds to restore the Bluebird bus tour program, a transportation program for seniors.

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What’s sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander.

According to Colonel Morris Davis:

“Funny seeing the GOP frothing at the mouth today because the State Dept told Greg Hicks not to talk to Rep Chaffetz about Benghazi when he visited Libya … same bunch sat quietly when the Bush Defense Dept ordered me not to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Guantanamo and torture in Dec 2007.”

I am so sorry I missed the frothing. I had a long standing engagement today that required me to be away from the TV. I came close to cancelling.

So, did the usual bullying go on?