A little Holly Acres Push me/Pull me

adultgirl

 

For those of you who don’t know Greg Reynolds, he and his wife frequently appear before the BOCS to attempt to make things right, especially for those who are least able to defend themselves.  He has gone to bat for the elderly, kids and immigrants, just to name a few groups of folks.  He was particularly vocal about getting the transportation to the senior centers back up and running.  He bids us all not to leave our religion at the door of the Supervisors Chambers. 

A correspondence from Greg Reynolds:

The Holly Acres Mobile Home Park story continues to unfold.
 
In the latest development in the Holly Acres Mobile Home Park the homeowners went to get the permits to proceed with the repairs to their damaged homes but the County denied the permits immediately after (and even though) the Board of Zoning Appeals had overturned the Zoning Administrator’s order preventing the repair and replacement of their damaged mobile homes.
 
It would be very helpful if you can attend the Board of Supervisors meeting this Tuesday, 11/29/2011 at 2 PM, to ask the Board members to help restore Holly Acres.
 
These 70 affordable homes do not seem to be a priority for the Board of County Supervisors but they are very important to the families that need permanent affordable housing. 

The Herman Cain controversy goes on

MoonHowler

Mark “Smokin’ Man” Block accused the Rick Perry campaign of leaking the sexual harassment story to Politico. He also blames Politico for using anonymous sources.  He says both the campaign and Politico owe Herman Cain and his family an apology.

It seems to me that the story is old. There are 2 women who filed sexual harassment charges. Period.

A third woman has stepped forward who did not file charges but who felt like she was uncomfortable. Now any woman coming forward at this late date is just setting herself up for misery. She will be hounded by the press and some campaign will attempt to paint her as tramp of the century.

There is a lot of back-tracking and spin going on. I don’t believe the story is important. The handling of the problem is what is going to make or break Herman Cain. Yesterday it appeared he was on edge.

Ann Coulter herself has said the race card is being played. Herman Cain has been quoted as saying that this is coming up now because of the fact that he is black. Cain is no different than any other candidate who is out there and leading in the polls. If anyone sniffs out a weakness, the oppositional research will be all over it. Harry Truman needs to have a private word with Herman Cain: If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I am more concerned over Cain’s knowledge base than I am his woman problem. Many a good president has had women problems–including those we don’t know about.

Read more on Foxnews.com    (that bastion of liberal thinking)

Herman Cain: Here We Go Again

MoonHowler

Geraldo wants an answer to a straight up question. This information does not bode well for a presidential candidate. 

Spokesperson J. D.  Gordon dodged Geraldo’s questions fairly clumsily. 

I feel a story taking on a life of its own.

According to Politico.com:

 

During Herman Cain’s tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, ultimately leaving their jobs at the trade group, multiple sources confirm to POLITICO.

The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.

We have no opinion at this point because there are too many missing facts. However, that is certainly not going to stop the speculation.

What I do find offensive is to blame it on Cain being a conservative politician. There were enough bad boys out there the past couple of years to give John Edwards a good run for his money.

Speaking of John Edwards, he keeps getting in deeper and deeper. He is now in criminal court. However, some idiot reporter claimed some old rich woman backed him. Bunny Melon is hardly ‘some old rich woman.’ Are reporters just getting dumber or is it my imagination?

Back to Herman Cain–any speculation here? Please don’t say its because he is conservative….that is such an excuse.

You can read more at politico.com.

At what point do we discard the party promises?

MoonHowler

There has been an on-going discussion on this blog about political parties, who belongs to which, and what our respective obligations are to a political party.  It is  safe to say that there are a fair number of Republicans on here.  Some people are tea party Republicans, some folks are fiscal conservative Reagan-type Republicans, and some are generic Republicans. 

There don’t seem to be card-carrying Democrats here but there are quite a few people who tend to be democratic supporters and voters.  I was once an informal Republican and later became a card-carrying Democrat.  Occasionally there were people chosen locally, state, or on the national evel who were just bad actors.  I ran in to some folks I simply couldn’t vote for.   So what do you do?   I am an Independent now and have been for probably 20 years.  I have no party localities. 

Steve feels it is a matter of principle to vote for a Republican, since he is also an officer in the City organization.  Is there a point where you shouldn’t just vote for party and should follow your conscience?  What earmarks should we look for?  It almost seems like we could end up electing the next Hitler if we don’t have some mental stops in place. 

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Pat Robertson says GOP too extreme

MoonHowler

Geez, if Pat Robertson says the GOP is too extreme, you need to worry.  Isn’t this the dude who said Katrina was caused by gay people?  If Pat get it, so should everyone else.  If Pat “liberals are akin to Nazis’ Robertson thinks you are too extreme, maybe he is on to something.  Perhaps he has had an ephiphany. 

Let’s focus. Who is the candidate who is going to come through here and do a big whup-ass on Obama?  Just tell us the candidate.  We will prepare.  Thanks for the warning, Pat.  Will the next warning  be delivered  by a horde of locusts?

Scorn in the U.S.A.–The battle has begun for the soul of the democracy

MoonHowler
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Scorn in the U.S.A.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Jon Stewart tells us that the soul of America has been awakened by Eric Cantor’s battle cry. Americans are being pitted against Americans. Who are we up against? University professors who can flunk you for beng too openly conservative at Fictional U! Go fighting figments of your paranoid imagination!

There is a long list of enemies.  Can you list them?  You might have to listen more than once.  I did.

There is a little math involved and even a Venn diagram.

Get some skin in the game!

Bunny Money??

MoonHowler

 

It appears that John Edwards will be indicted per the green light from DOJ.   At issue is his use of campaign money to finance his pay-off to his mistress, Rielle Hunter. According to Huffington Post, much of the pay-off money came from a 99 year old heiress, Bunny Mellon. The Daily Beast reports:

You’d assume Rachel Lowe Lambert Lloyd Mellon—who, just shy of 100 years old, is probably the last surviving member of the old-money aristocracy that once lorded it over America—would be mortified by her involvement in a tabloid-ready sex scandal.

Hardly.

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Minnesota House of Representatives breaks bad with opening prayer

MoonHowler

The Daily Beast:

The heavy metal evangelist Bradlee Dean, whose opening prayer Friday at the Minnesota House of Representatives has sparked a firestorm, does not much like Islam, a religion he believes is at war with the United States.

Dean has long believed that President Obama is a Muslim, and he often insists that Obama has declared America a Muslim nation. So it wasn’t terribly surprising when he snuck a slur against the president into his prayer. The Minnesota House of Representatives, he acknowledged, is a nondenominational chamber, which he takes to mean that all kinds of Christians are welcome. “[I]t’s not about the Baptists and it’s not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans, or the Presbyterians the evangelicals or any other denomination,” he said. The only head of the denomination—i.e., of the government —“is Jesus, as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged.” 

Rep. Terry Morrow was so angry he shook.  He responded:

“Mr. Speaker, I do trust and I do hope that every member of this chamber understands the gravity and the severity of the offense that had been given to many people within this chamber and out,” he said. “It has been my understanding that part of the justification, part of the explanation for starting our sessions with a prayer was that those prayers would never exclude, never marginalize a Minnesotan on the basis of their faith, on the basis of their beliefs, on the basis of who they are, and those expectations have been crushed today.”

 

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Is it bye bye Coburn?

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Coburn played a more active role than previously known in the negotiations between ex-Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and his former aide, Doug Hampton. The extent of the Oklahoma Republican’s involvement is made clear in a report released Thursday by the Senate Ethics Committee that accuses the former senator of serious criminal violations.

Senator Ensign resigned in disgrace, under a great deal of pressure.  People were led to believe that it was to save the Hamptons from having to testify before the Senate Ethics Committee and to avoid embarrassment.  Now it seems that there is another reason–

Senator Tom Colburn knew much more about his friend’s infidelity and pay off to the Hamptons.  According to HuffPost:

Coburn, a friend of Ensign’s who confronted him about the adultery, became involved as an intermediary in negotiations between Ensign and Doug Hampton. The former aide sought money from Ensign in spring 2009. Coburn negotiated the payment to Doug Hampton down from $8 million to about $2.8 million, according to the report.

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Sarah Palin not afraid of Jon Stewart

MoonHowler

Well shiver me timbers….Sarah Palin has announced she is not afraid of Jon Stewart.  Then why doesn’t she accept his invitation?  Plenty of Republicans have appeared on the daily show and were treated respectfully–guests like Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, Tea Party leader Dick Armey and even longtime punching bags like former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former RNC chair Michael Steele — all have appeared and have engaged in lively discussion and debate.  Rumsfeld even tweeted:  “Just wrapped up one of the most thoughtful interviews of book tour with @thedailyshow”).  Stewart typically is a gracious host.

From the Huffington Post:

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Lock and Load Rhetoric

MoonHowler

From the Huffington Post:

Marty Kaplan

The Lock and Load Rhetoric of American Politics Isn’t Just a Metaphor

I’m not saying that putting a bullseye[sic] * on Arizona Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional race – as Sarah Palin did – was an explicit or intentional invitation to violence. Nor am I saying that the “Get on Target for Victory” events held by the guy Giffords beat – “Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly” – was the reason her assassin went after her. This tragedy is still unfolding, and the questions of motive and incitement will be argued about for a long time to come.

But I am saying that the “lock and load”/”take up your arms”rhetoric of American politics isn’t just an overheated metaphor. For years, the language of sports has dominated political journalism, and discourse about hardball and the horserace and the rest of the macho athletic lexicon has been a factor in the trivialization of our public sphere. This has helped dumb down democracy, making a serious national discussion about anything important too wonky for words.

The “second amendment solution,” though, does something worse than make politics a branch of entertainment. It makes it a blood sport. I know politics ain’t beanbag. But words have consequences, rhetoric shapes reality, and much as we like to believe that we are creatures of reason, there is something about our species’ limbic system and lizard brainstems that makes us susceptible to irrational fantasies.

If you’re worried that violent video games may make kids prone to bad behavior; if you think that misogynic and homophobic rap lyrics are dangerous to society; if you believe that a nipple in a Superbowl halftime show is a threat to our moral fabric – then surely you should also fear that the way public and media figures have framed political participation with shooting gallery imagery is just as potentially lethal.

I believe Marty Kaplan just said it all.   You don’t have to go to a national level to feel the sting of exactly what he was talking about.  And it doesn’t all have to do with fire arms metaphors.  The entire bullying tones of politics is felt.  Private citizens are made fun of  just for expressing their opinions.  We all know what I am talking about. 

 I don’t believe any one thing triggered Jarod to go on a rampage.  I will leave that to the experts.  He was obviously psychotic.  However, the vitriolic attacks I have heard for the past 48 hours on Sheriff Dupnik have been shocking.  I have heard major unnamed networks call for his removal and he has been castigated as though he spat on the pearly gates.  What happened to those ideas of Americana like free speech and democratically elected officers?  Dupnik lives in the region and knows a lot more about the pulse and tone of his area than any of us. 

 

*  the graphic on the map targetting Rep. Giffords was a rifle scope, not a bull’s eye.

Sarah Palin Doesn’t Just Hunt Moose

MoonHowler

Sarah Palin also hunts American icons.  Now Palin is after JFK.  Why is she targetting all the American icons?  Let’s see:  Reagan, Daddy and Mrs. Bush, W. Bush, and now none other than JFK.  What has he done? 

Back in the summer we ran a post celebrating the 50th anniversary of JFK’s speech to the ministers of Houston on the importance of the wall of separation between church and state.   That speech was considered to be one of Kennedy’s most important.  To this day, he is the only Roman Catholic to be elected President of the United States. 

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has addressed Palin’s erroneous thinking in an opinion piece in the Washington Post   Saturday:

In her new book, “America by Heart,” Palin objects to my uncle’s famous 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, in which he challenged the ministers – and the country – to judge him, a Catholic presidential candidate, by his views rather than his faith. “Contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for president,” Kennedy said. “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic.”

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The Truth-o-meter on PolitiFact Virginia in the RTD

MoonHowler

Want to know about the latest truth or lies Vrignia politicians have told while campaigning? 

The Richmond Times Dispatch features  PolitiFact Virginia.

Eric Canter registers in the Pants on Fire category when PolitiFact checks in to his statement “

Eric Cantor

In the past two years, Democrats have “spent more money than this country has spent in the last 200 years combined.

Several quotes from major Virginia races are featured.  Obviously the Truth-o-meter didn’t like Rep. Cantor’s statement. Check it out.

 

South Carolina: Sleeper Cell of the South

MoonHowler

Colonel Morris Davis submitted this essay to Huffington Post.  He sent us a copy also.

 

I saw this sticker last week when I was at the old market in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

Those stickers are quite common and seemed innocent enough, but then I had a Glenn Beck moment where the hidden symbols became clear and revealed their deeper, darker meaning.

Where had I seen the same palm tree symbol before? BAM! – It’s that island they built in Dubai, a Muslim Middle Eastern country. And who else has a tree on their flag? Bam! – Lebanon, another Middle Eastern country that is predominately Muslim. Okay, okay, maybe I’m reading too much into the symbolism of the tree, but what about that crescent moon? BAM! – The crescent moon is an international symbol for Muslims and appears on the flags of most Islamic countries. So, there it was as plain as day right in front of me … a palm tree and a crescent moon … enough said.

Now the letters “SC” made logical sense … “Sharia Caliphate” or perhaps “Sleeper Cell.” What better way to lull the rest of the nation into complacency than pretending to be intolerant right wing bigots who love sweet tea and pulled pork and hate mosques and prayer rugs. And maybe that whole terror baby nonsense isn’t nonsense after all. Well played, Senator DeMint … or should I say Sheikh DeMint?

Grayson goes after “Taliban Dan”

MoonHowler

Disclaimer: Moonhowlings does not endorse either candidate nor does it speak to the accuracy of either video.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is not the master of understatement. In fact, most people think he is somewhat over the top. He is definitely liberal. What happens when neither candidate seems to fit the tenor of the constituents? Grayson’s opponent, Daniel Webster, was supposedly elected in primary by the far, far right. I checked out Webster’s website. He seems conservative but not insanely so. That is not to say he is or isn’t, just that his website is no indication of far right insanity.

Grayson has nicknamed his opponent Tailban Dan:

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