Sarah Goes Rogue

MoonHowler

Sarah Palin’s new book, Going Rogue, has received more publicity than most authors could ever hope or wish for. It should hit the shelves running, so to speak, Tuesday morning. Much has been leaked about of the book, either intentionally or unintentionally. In the book Sarah Palin talks about the McCain campaign, her difficulties with his campaign staff, her family, Alaska, her resignation as governor of Alaska, her near miss son-in-law, Levi Johnson, and an assortment of other things Americans seem to find fascinating. 

Sarah Palin appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday. I sat up extra late to see the rerun. Sarah Palin was gracious and scripted. Oprah didn’t have a prayer of catching her off-guard. Sarah Palin is likable. She is practiced. She appeared to want to leave no trail of words that might need explaining later. For example, she didn’t badmouth that pos Levi Johnson. That must have been tough considering Levi has gone everywhere trashing the entire family. She said he was the father of her grandchild and that would never change. Pretty smart of the lady, both politically and as the matriarch of the family.

Read More

Rachel Maddow Interviews Ken Burns

MoonHowler

Rachel gives us some background and then interviews Ken Burns.  The theme from FDR resonates throughout, ‘building human happiness.’

 

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

 

Much as been made of the idea what if the government had not taken lands that ordinary people fell in love with and preserved them for our posterity.  Sedona, Arizona comes to mind.  Many of the most beautiful areas of that red rock country are sequestered away for only the rich people to enjoy.   Fabulous canyons are accessible, if you can afford to pay $400-$1500 per night for accommodations. 

Burns and Maddow tie in some of the problems being voiced today to the problems that have haunted the National Park System.  Regardless of how far we come, we still end up discussing some of the very same issues that were discussed a hundred years ago.

 

From the New York Times:  What’s Wrong with the National Parks?

 

Free Speech? Apparently Not in Herndon

MoonHowler

The Herndon Mayor Steve DeBenedittis and Councilman Dennis Husch  both took exception to being dressed down by several citizens during ‘citizens’ time’ during a recent Herndon town council meeting.  Apparently both men had participated in a demonstration outside a fund raising event for Democratic hopeful Steven Miller, attended by Governor Tim Kaine.  

2 women both spoke of their disappointment that their elected respresentatives during their 3 minutes of time to discuss items that were not on the agenda.  The councilman and mayor both attempted to speak over the citizens who were not going to have any of that! 

Read More

What is a Progressive Radical?

MoonHowler

According to the Washington Post article, The $1,300 Mission to Fell ACORN, James O’Keefe (pimp player)and Hannah Giles (hooker player) did not even know each other personally when they hatched the plan to nail ACORN. They had exchanged emails and talked on Facebook. Giles was studying journalism from a conservative point of view at Young America’s Foundation and had done a study on O’Keefe’s sting on Planned Parenthood. O’Keefe III describes himself as a progressive radical. Now what the hell is that? Is that a new name for Tea Partier?  O’Keefe’s work can be found at the Big govt website.

According to MSNBC :

Though O’Keefe described himself as a progressive radical, not a conservative, he said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos against Republicans.

“Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization,” he said. “No one was holding this organization accountable. No one in the media is putting pressure on them. We wanted to do a stunt and see what we could find.”

Read More

Jackson Miller Outlines Bills He Will Submit or Co-sponsor

MoonHowler

Hot off the email press from Delegate Jackson Miller. I don’t see anything that howls at me for attention. At any rate, this is the lazy woman’s thread. I cut and pasted straight from Delegate Miller’s own email. I don’t see anything I object to. I hope he sends out email about how he voted on other people’s bills.

This year’s session is usually referred to as the “short session”. That’s because it only lasts 46 days as opposed to sessions in even years, which last sixty. Odd-year sessions are shorter because the General Assembly is only required to make amendments to the existing biennial budget. In long sessions, an entirely new budget must be constructed and approved.

Usually, amending the budget is a task that takes significantly less work than constructing one from scratch. But, the state’s budget shortfall makes amending the existing budget a lot more challenging than usual this year. Still, the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn for this year on February 28.

As I noted last week, there will be many other issues before us during this session than the budget. Among the hundreds of bills that will be discussed are several that I am submitting.

Here are just a few of the bills that I am submitting or co-sponsoring this year:

Read More

Income Taxes—the New Gottcha

MoonHowler

According to Yahoo News another member of the Obama team now has tax woes. Former Senator Tom Daschle, nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has some recently resolved tax issues that can be described as:

[Daschle]…recently filed amended tax returns to report $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest, according to a Senate document obtained by The Associated Press.

The White House acknowledged Friday that “some tax issues” had emerged in connection with the nomination, but a spokesman said the president is confident the former Senate Democratic leader will be confirmed as the new health secretary.
Daschle filed amended tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007 to reflect additional income for consulting work, the use of a car service and reduced deductions for charitable contributions. He filed the returns after Obama announced he intended to nominate Daschle to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Most of the additional taxes resulted from unreported income from the use of a car service provided him by a close friend and business associate, Leo Hindery Jr. The unreported income for that service totaled more than $250,000 over three years.

Daschle also had unreported consulting income of $88,333, in 2007. He also had reductions to charitable contributions totaling about $15,000 over the three years covered, according to the Senate Finance Committee document. The document, marked “Confidential Draft,” is a committee statement concerning Daschle’s nomination.

Now the money situation just described is enough to give most of us apoplexy. Conversely, do all of us know every tax law? I think I would know if I didn’t report $250,000 over 3 years, but, I am not in the same income bracket as Senator Daschle.

Read More

McCain Rally at McCoart Complex Saturday

MoonHowler

John McCain will speak at McCoart Complex at Saturday, October 18 at 2:00 p.m.

Sean Connaughton Plaza
Prince William County Complex
1 County Complex Court
(Located off the Prince William County Parkway)
Prince William VA, 22192
Blockquote>

Supervisor Stewart has sent emails out to many constituents announcing this rally:

I wanted to make sure you received an invite to join our next President, John McCain, at a rally in Prince William County this Saturday at 2 p.m. (doors open at 1 p.m). Senator McCain’s time is a precious resource, and his presence in Prince William reinforces our status as a key battleground county.

Traffic is supposed to be a bear so if you don’t have to be in the area, don’t be.

Once again Prince William County is the rally site for a presidential hopeful. Long ignored in presidential races, Virgina is a battle ground state during this election cycle as both candidates and their running mates hope to acquire the holy grail of all elections: President of the United States.

Prince William has been particularly blessed with a visit from both candidates. We were Obama’s first stop once he accepted the nomination of his party.

Will voters turn Virginia blue? Will Prince William be the pivotal county in the presidential race? With all the attention we have received, it is becoming more evident that we are more than just a blip on the radar. I wonder why that is?

It’s hard to be humble with this much attention.

Click for story and link to

Washington Post

BREAKING NEWS….Obama Is Not ‘An Arab’

MoonHowler

Attempts to sow seeds of terrorism fear about Obama may have backfired on the McCain Campaign. McCain himself has had to put out a few fires at political rallies where crowds have shouted out, ‘Screw Obama,’ ‘Terrorist,’ ‘Kill him,’ ‘Bomb Obama.’ and other horribly offensive types of language. One woman, as seen in the embedded video said she didn’t trust Obama because he is ‘an Arab.’

To his credit, Senator McCain took the microphone back and told the lady that wasn’t true and issued a few platitudes about Obama. It looks like Senator McCain and Governor Palin are reaping what they have allowed to be sown.

Are character assassination and attempts to associate Senator Obama with former Weather Underground leader turned education professor Bill Ayers going to pay off for The McCain Campaign or does this type of rhetoric just make his campaign look desperate? Has Senator Obama taken the high road?

Lastly, does any of this look vaguely familiar?