Capt. George Harris: Song of the South?? Faux-Patriotism for the South

MoonHowler

Guest opinion from our friend, Capt. George Harris:

A couple of days ago I picked up a copy of The Prince William Times and found a front page article about PWC’s “Mini-Trump”, Corey Stewart.  I found it most interesting that Stewart, a carpetbagger from Minnesota, ranted on about “our Virginia heritage”.  The worst kind of carpetbagging.  And he wraps himself in a flag that he declares is the flag of the Confederacy.  Another attempt at faux-patriotism  for the South.  This is the first flag of the Confederacy and there were two others.  This is the “Stars and Bars” that served as the national flag of the Confederacy.

This flag (below) was the Battle Flag of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia-it was NEVER the national flag of the Confederacy.  However, it was incorporated into two subsequent Confederate national flags.  It’s continued use by white racists only serves to fan the flames of racism that that continue to burn more than 150 years after the end of a war that nearly destroyed the “perfect union” our founders so desperately sought when they signed the Declaration of Independence long ago on a hot, muggy day in Philadelphia.

I have seen the Facebook video mentioned in the article. Stewart is pulling out all the stops to show that he is a “True son of the South” when he is anything but.  He is so bad that even Trump fired him.  When are the citizens of Prince William County going to wake up and fire him?  And hopefully the citizens of the Commonwealth will see through this carpetbagger and not elect him to our state’s highest office.

George S. Harris

Captain, US. Navy (Retired)

Manassas, VA

 

Virginia Republican Convention: WTF?

MoonHowler

corey2

Washingtonpost.com:

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Supporters of Ted Cruz dominated a slate of delegates that Virginia Republicans chose Saturday at their state convention, further demonstrating the Texas senator’s mastery of the delegate-selection process.

Of the 13 national delegates picked by party activists here, 10 are Cruz supporters and three support Donald Trump. The tally represents the biggest chunk up for grabs of the 49 total delegates who will represent the state at the national convention in Cleveland this summer.

Despite bruising primary ­losses around the country, Cruz is betting that Trump will not make it to the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the party’s nomination, and he is working to woo delegates who would be loyal to him at a brokered convention.

Cruz came in a distant third in Virginia in the March 1 primary but had enough supporters among the 2,610 party activists who filled an arena at James Madison University on Saturday to win critical delegates.

 

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Corey Stewart: A view from Prince William County–how they really see you

Angelina_Apr

dark ages3

On another blog, in a time not so long ago, a little supervisor contacted all the dark masters to see what could be done to help him win an election.  This time became known as The Dark Ages of Prince William County.

Yes, Corey Stewart, we are talking about YOU.  Remember when you jumped on the Rule of Law bandwagon and went after everyone Latino?  You didn’t just go after criminal illegal aliens.  You went after everybody.  You actions tore at the very fabric of our community.  You rubber stamped thousands of  homes to be built  while targetting those who came to our community seeking work in the building industry.   You  meanwhile lined  your war chest with developer money.

You used  immigration to your own political gain, inciting a county rather than seeking sensible solutions.  You made promises that could not be kept, knowing that what you said could not be implemented.  You back-stabbed your colleagues on the Board of Supervisors by giving their emails to local bloggers.  You allowed the police chief to be called a traitor by your blogger buddies.  His “sin” was meeting with immigrants and Latino community leaders to explain the new changes and to reassure them that they would not be profiled.  The BOCS had directed him to do this.  Chief Deane deserved better.

Your Rule of Law Resolution that you chest thumped so hard about allowed probable cause to be used to intimidate immigrants.  Even though you declared probable cause would change over ‘your dead body,’ it did change and you tried to obfuscate the situation and claim that you supported the new Rule of Law all along.  This new rule was ushed in by supervisors who had had time to think about what was being done.  In the end, anyone arrested had their status checked, a far cry from random checks that happen when ‘probable cause’ is the law of the land.

Now local Republicans have turned on you.  I expect they see you as a candidate who lacks convictions.  Your code of ethics seems to stop at anything that isn’t self-serving.

Corey, you divided a county for political gain.   It seems now that much of the community has turned on you simply because you have made poor decisions.  You pledged to keep part of our county rural, yet the minute you were in office you approved thousands of acres to be exempt from the rural crescent restrictions.

You really have kept your promises to no one.  Good luck tomorrow.  I doubt if you will get much support from those of us in the ‘hood.  I hope you aren’t counting on the Latino vote.  The people of Prince William County  have long memories.  Virginians don’t take to betrayals real well.

Corey, you could have fooled me!

MoonHowler
No Latino voters for Core-man
No Latino voters for Core-man

I got another beg letter from Corey.  He wanted money.  I am not sure why he thinks I am his friend.  Part of his  email contained the following:

The media is at it again. Just two days ago, a columnist from the Richmond Times Dispatch labeled me “an immigrant basher”.

It is no doubt this statement arises from my leadership of the nation’s toughest crackdown on criminal illegal immigration

In Prince William County, if you are arrested for a crime and it is determined that you are here illegally, then our law enforcement officers hand you over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

I need your help in this fight to combat the never ending liberal media attacking our conservative values.  A donation of $25, $50, $100 would go a long way to help me spread my message of conservative governance.

Every person who is being arrested is checked, regardless of age, sex, race, etc. If upholding the Rule of Law makes me “an immigrant basher” than let them name call, I am willing to deal with such petty insults for the safety of Prince William County’s 425,000+ residents. Since we enacted our illegal immigration policy, there has been a 47.8% drop in violent crime and we have handed over more than 6,000 criminal illegal aliens to ICE.

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Corey Stewart proposes ‘entitlement cuts’ rather than reducing defense spending

MoonHowler

Corey Stewart is apparently wants to save all defense spending while taking a chainsaw to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.  His latest email blast in his bid for Lt. Governor is shocking!  His own words:

There is no question our Federal Budget has ballooned to epic proportions, but arbitrarily slashing defense spending is the wrong way to try and reduce the federal deficit.

90,000 civilian Department of Defense employees will be furloughed; this alone will be a $648.8 million hit to the economy of Virginia.

If Washington wants to get serious about reigning in spending, they must go after entitlements. Entitlement programs currently occupy 62% of our federal budget, with 44% of that being comprised of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Those programs are increasing beyond the rate of inflation and, when combined with Obamacare, will eat up 18.5% of our national economic output.

Did he really use the words “go after?”  Does he realize that many senior citizens have only Social Security  to rely on?   Is he declaring a war on senior citizens and the poor?  It sure sounds like it.

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Corey Stewart: Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Elena

When will Corey stop spreading the misinformation?  It never gets old for him and yet I find refuting his propaganda exhausting!

So, let’s just recap, shall we? Indulge me for a moment as I take us down memory lane.  Only recently, after Romney lost, Corey was oh so eager to impart his wisdom upon Mr. Romney.  You know, all that knowledge and experience he has reaching out to the minority community, oh, excuse me,  just a moment, as a I…….(choke, sputter, cough, gag).

Whew, that was close, I had difficulty catching my breath there.  Where was I?  Oh yes, Corey, the great communicator with the immigrant and minority community.  Here was his sage advice for Mr. Romney, via the New York Times:

“You don’t have to sell out on the issues and suddenly take on the Democratic position on taxes to win the black vote or the Latino vote or the women vote,” said Corey Stewart, a Republican who is chairman of the Board of County Supervisors in Prince William. “But you do have to modulate your tone.”

Mr. Stewart, who is running for lieutenant governor next year, drew some criticism in 2007 by pushing for local crackdowns by the police on illegal immigrants. That has cost him support among many Hispanic voters in the county, but he says it helped him politically among blacks who felt threatened economically by the surge of newcomers.

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Senate announces bipartisan immigration deal

MoonHowler

Here it is folks.  It is still in infancy.  President Obama will announce his plan on Tuesday which is supposedly more liberal than the Senate version.

The gang of 8 includes:

The Gang of Eight senators who formally introduced the proposal include Democrat  Sens. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Bob Menendez (N.J.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) and  Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Lindsey Graham  (S.C.), who couldn’t attend.

I seem to be missing 2 senators.  Senator Flake of AZ and Senator Bennett of Colorado are also part of the gang of 8.

These senators seem clearly united that this bill will not be like the one in 1986 that was passed  nor the one in 2007 which did a swan-dive in defeat.

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As the nose grows…..State of the County

MoonHowler

Parsing the state of the county might take a month. What stands out could be Corey welcoming each and every county newcomer. Is this Mr.Corey “Anti-immigration” Stewart? Has Corey had a frontal lobotomy? Is he now welcoming the dreaded illegal alien? My how things have changed.

Our Tax bills are 7% less than they were in 2007? My house is worth 30% less. Shouldn’t those two percents be a little closer?

Corey makes it too easy. I won’t hog all the fun. I will give you guys a turn. Have at it! Find the lies. Make Corey’s nose grow.

Don’t step on your nose, Corey

MoonHowler

From the State of the County Address (Corey Stewart):

We invested in our teachers and public servants. We provided the revenues the Schools needed to increase teacher pay and remain competitive, and we provided County staff a merit increase for the first time in four years.

When Corey?  last year?  This year, The upcoming year?

That is a blatant lie.  You have not invested in the Prince William County teachers.  Every year they come to the BOCS and ask for money.  Their chief concern has been about class size.  They asked the Supervisors to  set the tax rate at a few cents more.  That was not done.

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Captain Flip Flop, this is your life Corey Stewart!

MoonHowler

Jeremy Borden  of the Washington Post traced the wind blown political career of Supervisor Corey Stewart over the past 9 years, on the eve of his announcement to run for Virginia Lt. Governor.  In his article entitled, Stewart’s changing stance on development in Prince William, Borden shows a candidate who goes where he thinks he will get to votes.  Stewart certainly showed his stripes today as he planned to  announce his candidacy from Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center in Woodbridge.  According to Borden, at the Washington Post:

Stonebridge, Stewart says, is emblematic of a new way forward for economic development in Prince William, an issue that was the focus of his reelection campaign last year.

Stewart started out as a politician with a strong desire to stop sprawl and to protect the environment.  He had many folks, both Democrat and Republican on his side for that reason.  This flip flop has caused many of his former supporters to become disenchanted with his political career.

But some former supporters say Stewart has lost his way on development issues.

No longer, critics say, is he seen as someone who would force developers to pay their fair share and help temper the feverish pace of home construction that has overwhelmed roads and schools.

“His campaign account shows he is now beholden to the development community,” said Jeanine Lawson, a former Stewart campaign volunteer. “It’s a disappointment because I thought he was principled on the issue.”

The project’s developers, District-based Roadside Development, contributed $10,000 to Stewart’s campaign account in the past couple of years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, or VPAP, which tracks money in politics.

In recent years, Stewart has greatly increased his totals from real estate and construction interests, according to VPAP. From that sector, Stewart raised $308,782 in 2010 and 2011, compared with $134,901 from 2003 through 2009.

Back in the old days, Stewart  prided himself on not taking developer money.  That was then and this is now.  The most cursory glance at VPAP tells the story.  Cory Stewart is running on developer money.  He even says:

“Some of that comes with the maturity of being in office and having to govern,” he said of his shift on development issues. “When you become chairman, you get a broader perspective. You understand . . . ‘We cannot provide for increased prosperity and increased job growth without promoting and helping businesses to grow.’ ”

Stewart says that in a free market, developers have a lot of latitude: “The only way is to work with [developers] and cut deals with them.” [emphasis mine]

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The Biggest “Fuster Cluck” of All

Elena

So the truth is out.   Confirmed, via the most recent article in the in an interview with The Washington Post that he plans to introduce a policy next year on the concept of “clustering,”a new approach to managing the county’s rural area.

Allow me to interject some facts here.  There IS a “cluster ordinance” in the comprehensive plan for allowing clustering of homes on large tracts of land.  I will put a copy of the ordinance  up on the rural crescent website and link to it so people can become better informed.   I am hopeful that maybe even Corey and Peter Candland will visit the link in order to educate themselves on the current cluster ordinance.

Lo and behold, Peter Candland is already finding ways to do Corey’s bidding!   I don’t think that Peter has a full understanding of land use or else he would understand why Corey’s proposal is bunk.

“That, I believe, succeeds at nothing,” Stewart said. “I think that we need to look at better ways of preserving very large areas of rural ground as well as promoting more commercial office space and high-end retail. We have to take the emotion out of this debate and give it a cold, hard, objective look.”

Stewart said his argument is that having a hodgepodge of 10-acre lots doesn’t make sense. Better, he said, to have a development on 100 acres, where 30 acres are developed and the other 70 are open space, he said. Stewart said that such a policy would take a long time to develop, and the board would do so “in conjunction with the community.”

Candland said he rejects the commonly used term “slow growth,” saying “managed growth” more adequately describes his philosophy to encourage growth along with adequate infrastructure. But he largely agrees with Stewart’s philosophy of bringing the county more high-end retail and office space, he said, adding that improving the county’s quality of life will drive economic growth.

“Plain and simple,” Candland said, “we need to bring business to Prince William County.”

The level of ignorance astounds me.    I wonder if Corey and Peter are aware that there is plenty of undeveloped land in the “Development Area” that has YET to be rezoned for its allowed long range use.  There is not a lack of opportunity for high end retail and commercial (anyone heard of Innnovation?) in Prince William County.  There is a lack of those high end retailers and Corporations CHOOSING to do business here. 

Busting open the Rural Crescent will only have one sure fire result, higher taxes for everyone.  Gotta love those conservative values.

I wonder if Michael Neibauer from the Washington Business Journal will have a follow up article to citizens of Prince William County affirming his pre and post prediction on Canlands election being the “game change” for development in the western end.

Not that there’s some massive push to build new homes in Prince William County, especially the western end. But when a proposal does come along — and it will — Candland’s victory may give the developer a narrow opening.

 

 

 

Corey Stewart: The Developers Candidate

Elena

Does everyone remember this statement from Corey, Washington Post Oct 19th?

Stewart said that developers were pleased with the direction the board has taken as a whole in easing permit restrictions, building roads and other key infrastructure and keeping taxes low.

He said that he has never taken donations from developers while they have a project pending before the board.

I’ll bet “developers are pleased with the direction of the board!”  Does Avendale ring any bells?!

Tell me, please, why do people spin the truth when the facts can so clearly create obvious contradictions.  From today’s Inside Nova:

On Oct. 7, Bruni Peters of Fairfax-based RK Realty contributed $10,000 to Stewart – just 11 days before Stewart and the rest of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors unanimously approved a comprehensive land use amendment and a re-zoning of one of Bruni’s future mixed-use properties.

At issue is the Hunter at Haymarket development. Thanks to the board’s vote, a six-acre portion of a 44-acre parcel of land off U.S. 15 was approved for office space. The board also approved a higher density residential zoning for nearly 10 of 15 acres that were originally designated semi-rural residential.

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Flood Victims to be evicted by PWC on Friday

MoonHowler

‘‘]

From insidenova.com:

An estimated 150 to 175 individuals from 35 to 40 families from the Marumsco and Holly Acres mobile home parks were left homeless when more than 10 inches hit the U.S.1 corridor in Woodbridge last Thursday. The heavy rainfall caused massive damage to the parks; 66 out of 108 units in the Holly Acres park were declared unsafe to inhabit.

Many of the displaced flood victims are staying at the Dale City Recreation Center because they have no where else to go.  This arrangement will be very short-lived because the county is shutting the shelter down at 5 p.m. on this coming Friday.

Those still staying at Dale City Recreation Center – between 35 and 40 families – have until Friday at 5 p.m. before they have to leave the Red Cross-administered facility. Many of those families came to speak to the board on Tuesday, relaying their plight.

 Prince William Countydoesn’t have Section 8 housing vouchers at this time. And Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart reiterated to the crowd gathered at Tuesday’s meeting that the county could not provide permanent housing to the victims of the storm.

Residents and community activists appealed to the county at the BOCS meeting. 

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Why is Corey’s hand out again?

MoonHowler

Corey  Stewart has an urgent emailer out once again asking for money.  I chose the word ‘ask’ because the Corey supporters took offense the last time I said ”beg.’   We have 48 hours to reply.   Here’s what he says:

Dear Friend,
 
As we approach the end of August, my campaign faces a critical deadline that we must meet. For the end of this quarter, we have set fundraising goal of receiving 50 contributions before midnight on August 31st. Will you be one of those 50 by donating $10, $20 or $50 to my campaign?

We must keep my opponent’s Liberal agenda at bay and stand strong for conservative fiscal policies of balanced budgets and low taxes. Under my leadership as Chairman, the Board has trimmed spending by more than $140 million, resulting in Prince William County’s AAA bond rating status.

In less than 48 hours our campaign faces a critical fundraising deadline and I am asking you to stand with me by making a contribution today in an effort to move Prince William County forward.

All the best,

Corey Stewart

 

Ahem…let’s get a few things straight.  Stewart implies a cause/effect relationship between his trimming of the budget and the county’s AAA bond rating status.  That AAA bond rating status was there before the budget was trimmed by more than $140 million. 

Secondly, you would think the wolf was at the proverbial door.  Checking www.vpap.org, it shows the following for Corey Stewart:

Total Receipts                                                                    $477,460

Total Disbursements                                                       $332,615

Cash on Hand

Stewart for PWC Board Chair-Corey Stewart          $209,986

Va Rule of Law PAC                                                                  $946

That’s a lot of money to blow.  He hardly is facing political destitution with $209,986.  I would have to know where he had squandered the other money before I wrote a check to his campaign.  His democratic opponent, is also sitting on a lot of cash.  Why should it cost so much to run for office in Prince William County? 

Should a campaign be all about money or should we demand those who want our vote stop the out of state inflow of money and the developer checks being infused into campaigns?  Why do I always feel like the voters of PWC have always just been ‘had?’

PWC sues feds over deportations

Angelina_Apr

Elena speaks with Channel 7 News:

 

 

According to insidenova.com, the county has filed suit against the federal government. 

Prince William County filed a lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security, according to a county press release.

In 2007 the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed an ordinance that requires county police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest.

If police find that they have arrested someone who is in the country illegally, they turn that person over to the department for deportation.

To date the county has turned over more that  [sic] 4,000 people over to DHS, the release stated.

At issue is the fact that an illegal immigrant who was an habitual offender hit a car carrying 3 elderly nuns.  One nun was killed and the other 2 were seriously injured.  The sisters belong to the Benedictine order and requested at the time of the tragedy that people not use the death of the sister to advance their political viewpoint.  The politicians and anti-immigration crowd of Prince William County have ignored the sisters’ request and have done quite the opposite.

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