House Dems try to halt Congressional pay

MoonHowler

 

Washingtonpost.com:

A potential Department of Homeland Security shutdown would directly affect lawmakers’ pocketbooks under a bill introduced in the House this week.

The Democratic measure, sponsored by Reps. Brad Ashford (Neb.), Gwen Graham (Fla.), Scott Peters (Calif.) and Ami Bera (Calif.), would halt pay for members of Congress if they don’t agree to a new round of funding for the agency by Friday, in which case DHS would partially close.

The legislation is similar to several bills that would have halted lawmakers’ salaries during the government-wide shutdown of 2013. Those measures never made it out of committee that year.

Federal statute only allows lawmakers to change the salaries of future members of Congress, so the new House bill would put their wages in an escrow account until the potential Homeland Security shutdown ends.

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Open Thread……………………………………..Saturday, February 28

MoonHowler

pregnant rabbit

Areas that get too much snow also produce people with too much time on their hands.  I thought this picture was one of the cuter snow sculptures that has hit the internet.

Are we just about finished with snow for the season?  I seriously doubt it.  Even though today is the last day of February and I have daffodils trying to come up in my front yard, I don’t think we have seen the last of Old Man Winter.

For the record, next Sunday, March 8, marks the beginning of  Day Light Saving Time.  Let my winter depression life!  More day light!

A Vulcan salute good-bye to Leonard Nimoy

MoonHowler

spock_0

A Vulcan salute to Leonary Nimoy who died Friday at the age of 83.  Nimoy played half-Vulcan, half human Mr. Spock on Star Trek.  According to his obituary in the Washinton Post:

“Someday,” producer Gene Roddenberry said many decades ago, “I’m going to make a science-fiction series and put pointed ears on that guy.”

The series was “Star Trek,” and the guy was Leonard Nimoy, who died Feb. 27 at 83. A tall, taut-faced actor, he had been laboring in obscurity for 15 years before Roddenberry hired him in 1966 to play the half-human, half-alien space explorer Spock.

Those pointy ears — along with the upswept eyebrows and “five-point” Vidal Sassoon bob — brought Mr. Nimoy enduring stardom in an entertainment and merchandising empire equaled perhaps only by the James Bond, “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” franchises.

“Star Trek,” a drama about the adventures of the starship Enterprise as it explored “the final frontier” of space, was not a critical or popular hit during its initial run on NBC from 1966 to 1969.
In syndication, however, it became a phenomenon.

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” I feel confident the spirit of Leonard Nimoy continues.

Live long and prosper, Leonard Nimoy.  Live long and prosper, wherever your journey takes you, even if it is where no man has gone before.

Pre-election prognostications

MoonHowler

This upcoming supervisors race is getting increasingly amusing.  Some of it is very predictable.  Some of it, not so much.

I hear things. I never tell names and tales in the same breath.  It cuts off your source of information.  Information is gold to a blogger.  You can use it wisely and prudently or you can shot-gun it all over the place and blow folks out of the water.  I have seen both.  I try to follow the former rather than the latter path.

I find it laughable that the same person ran his own strong-arm candidate acquisition scam.   I think about 20 people got strong armed.  Not many people have the stomach for this game so many just said no.

It appeared that there would be one Republican candidate and one Democratic candidate for the BOCS chair.  Then along came a rival, yapping at Corey heels.  I question the wisdom of  Candland support so early in the game.  That sends a clear message to the current chairman that Pete Candland is an adversary and doesn’t plan to work with Corey at all.  Candland might as well have declared war.  Why would you want to send that message, just out of curiosity?  Is that smart to show your cards that early in the game to someone of the same party, sitting on the same board?

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The Plague: Black rats exonerated–blame the gerbils

MoonHowler

black rat

Just when we found out that the hype about the Crusades was partially a myth, now we have another millennial myth blow up in our faces.  Rats have been exonerated for having killed a hundred   million people with the Black Plague.  Instead, scientists have discovered that this deadly recurring scourge was caused by rat cousins, the gerbils.  According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the  Washington Post reports:

After nearly eight centuries of accusing the black rat for spreading the bubonic plague, scientists say they have compelling evidence to exonerate the much-maligned rodent. In the process, they’ve identified a new culprit: gerbils.

It’s always the cute ones you have to watch out for, isn’t it?

gerbil

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, climate data dating back to the 14th century contradicts the commonly held notion that European plague outbreaks were caused by a reservoir of disease-carrying fleas hosted by the continent’s rat population.

 

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Budget work session part 2: untelevised at Buckhall Fire Department

MoonHowler

buckhall

The next budget work session will be this coming Saturday at the Buckhall Fire Department on Yates Ford Road.  It will probably be a  lot more comfortable and a lot more homelike for the supervisors and staff.  I am not so sure it will reach more people.  In fact, I am betting it reaches fewer.

The session cannot be broadcast.  The only possible broadcast must be from the board chambers.  The meeting cannot be changed back to the chambers because it has already been advertised for the Buckhall Fire Department.

I felt the session last Saturday was very informative.  Even though the session ended early because of the horrible weather, I felt like I was coming away with a lot better knowledge of how the county worked.  I am so sorry the decision was made to hold part 2 in another location.

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He’ll huff and he’ll puff and he’ll blow the House down

MoonHowler

Politico.com

Sesame Street, it seems, is just as excited for this Friday’s release of Season 3 of “House of Cards” as all of Washington.

The storied children’s show released a parody Monday called “House of Bricks” modeled after Netflix’s hit series. The video takes David Fincher’s theme music and anti-hero Frank Underwood’s Charleston-inflected accent in a version of the “Three Little Pigs” fairy tale adapted to Washington.

Frank Underwolf, a muppet version of the “House of Cards” protagonist, aims to huff and puff and blow down the straw and stick houses on the block so he can get to the White (Brick) House.

It’s almost here!  House of Cards!  Frank Underwood!  Don’t mess with me or talk to me on Friday.  I will be very busy–binge-watching.  I have waited all year.  Settle your own blog issues.  I will check in, once, half-heartedly.  If the blog blows up, settle it yourselves.

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Rob Richards: Villian or Hero, Devil or Angel?

MoonHowler

rob richards

Wasingtonpost.com:

His three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times. In it, Rob Richards and three other Marine Corps snipers are seen urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters they had just killed.

“Total dismay” were the words then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used to describe the video when it surfaced on the Internet in January 2012. “Utterly deplorable,” agreed then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Richards’s career in the military was finished.

More than two years later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals — Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose.

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BOCS budget work session: Saturday February 21, 2015

MoonHowler

This budget work session is extremely informative about the various county initiatives.  It is important enough that it deserves its own thread.

Why are these programs essential?  Which programs have perhaps outlived their usefulness?

First, the BOCS should be commended for sitting in the board room to do this exercise, even though there were more comfortable places to hold this session.  The board room is the only place to have the meeting televised.

I am very disappointed that Supervisors Candland and Lawson aren’t voting on line items.  They disapproved of the process so they are currently abstaining from voting.  They didn’t get their own way.

The budget work session is preliminary screening.  It isn’t a forever vote.   I feel not voting is obstructionism.  Let’s all see how EVERYONE votes.

Hopefully we will keep getting reports from inside the meeting. The board room is not packed to the gills.  (from what I can tell.)  Good crowd but I see several open seats.

Former first lady sentenced

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

RICHMOND — Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in federal prison — a penalty less than what federal prosecutors had sought but one that will still put her behind bars briefly.

U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said he struggled to understand the true nature of the former first lady — who seemed at times to be a loving mother and wife devoted to her family and other times a greedy and tyrannical woman who made others miserable.

“It’s difficult to get to the heart of who Mrs. McDonnell truly is,” Spencer said.

Spencer allowed Maureen McDonnell to remain free on bond while her appeal is pending.

I am not sure it is really up to Judge Spencer to understand Mrs. McDonald nor should figuring her out have any bearing on her sentence.  She either did it or she didn’t.  (whatever “it” is)  I am one of those who do not think either McDonald belongs in jail.

It is highly probable that Mrs. McDonald is greedy and did make everyone around her miserable.  Perhaps that is the toll that politics takes on some couples.  Money also takes a high toll, especially when the couple is middle class.    Mrs. McDonald was expected to dress to the nines, look like a million dollars on a shoestring budget.  She was a middle class lady playing on a field of high rollers.

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Rude Rudy: does it hurt the GOP?

MoonHowler

Guilani went from bad to worse. According to Huffingtonpost.com:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) defended his accusation that Obama doesn’t love America by arguing that Obama’s upbringing by a white mother and attendance of a white school made his statement not racist.

“Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people,” Giuliani said in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday.

All the GOP candidates now will be asked if they agree or disagree. They need to throw Rude Rudy under the bus. He was always too big for his britches anyway.  How can anyone assess how much someone else loves their country?  Political tomfoolery.

His 9-11 big-shotting would gag a maggot.  He can’t claim to be more deeply affected than everyone else.

Giuliani keeps digging himself in deeper and deeper.  Let the comedy begin.

WTF? 1.3% –The shame of Prince William County

MoonHowler

Or let’s put it another way–Prince William County, you cheap bastards.

Today I listened to the budget presentation from the  Tuesday night BOCS meeting. I was appalled.  Tonight I looked at it online.   The new budget sickened me.

Prince William County is not a poor county made up of poor folks.  It is quite wealthy and has a lot going for it.    It’s also, by Northern Virginia standards, a fairly affordable place to live.  So why are some people, especially those in my district, clamoring for lower taxes?

For that matter, why would our Board of Supervisors agree to make libraries the untouchables in a draconian budget slashing caper?  Why would money be taken away from the performing arts? Why would poor children be denied dental services and drug rehab programs be eradicated?  It isn’t even our poor and most vulnerable who will lose services.  It’s everyone.

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President Obama on “radical Islam”

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he refuses to describe the Islamic State and al Qaeda as groups fueled by “radical Islam” because the term grants them a religious legitimacy they don’t deserve.

“They are not religious leaders; they are terrorists,” Obama said during remarks at a White House event on countering violent extremism. “We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”

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New York lawmakers introduces Death with Dignity bill

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com:

New York state lawmakers have introduced a “death with dignity” bill that would make the state the sixth in the U.S. to allow terminally ill adults to end their own lives with doctor-prescribed medicine.

“The option to end one’s suffering when facing the final stages of a terminal illness should be a basic human right, and not dependent upon one’s zip code,” state Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) said in a statement Tuesday.

Savino is the primary co-sponsor of the New York End-of-Life Options Act, which would allow doctors to prescribe “medication that a patient can self-administer to bring about a peaceful and humane death.”

The bill, introduced last week, is modeled after Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” law, which grabbed headlines in October after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer, moved to the state from California in order to end her life. Maynard was surrounded by her family in Portland when she died on Nov. 1.

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Who’s the wealthiest of them all?

MoonHowler

From Forbes:

Rank County State Median Household Income
1 Loudoun County Virginia
$117,876
2 Howard County Maryland
$108,844
3 Fairfax County Virginia
$107,096
4 Hunterdon County New Jersey
$105,186
5 Arlington County Virginia
$100,474
6 Stafford County Virginia
$97,606
7 Putnam County New York
$96,223
8 Somerset County New Jersey
$95,825
9 Douglas County Colorado
$95,324
10 Morris County New Jersey
$95,294
11 Montgomery County Maryland
$94,965
12 Prince William County Virginia
$93,744
13 Nassau County New York
$93,214
14 Santa Clara County California
$91,425
15 Charles County Maryland
$90,880

Prince William County is #12. That’s not too shabby. Half the households make more than $93,744 annually and half make less. Loudoun, of course, puts us to shame with a top median household income of nearly $118,000 per year.

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