Senate announces bipartisan immigration deal

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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~~~~~Rumors~~~~~

The telephone has rung off the hook today with tidbits and rumors.  The email box has been chock full.  Where to begin….

The Lion and Bull in Haymarket  was the place of Carl Genthner’s kick off campaign for Gainesville Supervisor.  There was a welcoming committee for all who came to meet Mr. Genthner.  It seems that some of the current Gainesville Supervisor’s staff were sitting right outside the meeting room to check out who all was going in and to give a little stare down to the guests.   Fans (Thanks you Mr. Supervisor, thank you) were also there for the official stare down.

correction: there were NO CURRENT staff members from Supervisor’s Stirrups office at Carl Genthner’s kick offevent

Like minded political support was there for Mr. Genthner.

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Corey Stewart proposes to use addition county funds for his pet projects to curry some favors.  More information should be forthcoming.

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A Dark Blog–A certain blogmeister removed an inflammatory but sizzling exposé about a certain senate macaca candidate and a past RNC chair from his blog.  Did he out-sleaze himself or is there a touch of chivalry still alive?   Do Republicans really practice cannibalism?  It seemed like it reading that exposé.  Now should that person win the party nomination for the Senate, how does one undo the image planted in the minds of Virginians that the gentleman is a home-wrecker and an adulterer?  White-out just won’t cut it.

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BOCS–What former BOCS member might be challenging the remaining lady on the board?  Rumors abound.

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BOCS (2)–What supervisor needs to prepare outgoing email more carefully?

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Residents- Some residents think that the new magisterial district boundary lines are going to split up families.  Are some lines running right through the middle of someone’s home?

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Updates:

Blogosphere:  A local blogger has announced his/her candidacy for House of Delegates.

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Feel free to add to the rumor mill.  Things are getting interesting for sure.  We might just need a bookie before election day rolls around.

Homeless to be removed from camp in PWC

Insidenova.com:

DALE CITY, Va. —

By the end of this week, more than 80 individuals in Woodbridge will literally have nowhere to call home.

On Thursday morning, Virginia State Police are closing down a long-time homeless campsite located near the Dale Boulevard exit off Interstate 95 for safety and legal reasons. In an email sent Wednesday, Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer McCord stated that residents will have an hour to move their belongings off that property once police arrive.

Technically, these residents have been trespassing on state property, stated McCord. And because of the nature of the camp setup, McCord said it’s potentially dangerous for both campsite residents and the motorists on the interstate.

“This is a difficult situation and while we are sympathetic to anyone who is homeless, VDOT cannot allow these shelters on its right of way,” stated McCord.

Approximately 35 people are living at the site, said Bonnie Schrader, director of the Drop-In Center program at the nearby winter shelter. To make matters worse, another 46 single adults are officially outdoors after Thursday when the nearby winter shelter closes for the season

This is a story that has no answers.  There are also homeless camps on this end of the county.  What do you do when people have no where to live?  I understand that some of the people in the Dale City camp are children.

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WHAT is going on around here?

What is going on around Manassas and Prince William County?  Did someone put something in the water? 

We have had a young man murdered on the way home from school.  He wasn’t a gang member or anything other than a popular kid, according to all I have read.  The murder took place a block from Baldwin Elementary School, not in some remote area, surrounded by his peers.   What is going on around here?

We had a strange white powder substance come out of an envelope at the courthouse.  The courthouse was locked down and 5 people underwent decontamination.  Others are being watched for signs of illness. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force  has been called in to help with the investigation.  There is no confirmation of what the substance in the envelope was.   What is going on around here?

The Manassas Park Community Center was under lockdown today also.  No one was allowed in or out.  A warrant was being served in the vicinity.  What is going on around here?

The Gainesville Lazy Boy had a sniper on the roof and there was a suicide in the Hampton Inn in Gainesville. What is going on around here?

Some driver strung out on PCP and booze careened across the median strip just south of Gainesville and killed 2 innocent people and seriously injured others.  What is going on around here?

Last week a young bear was mutilated and its gall bladder had been removed.  Supposedly the bear gall bladder is used in Chinese medicine.  That hardly explains something that happened in Prince William Forest Park.  Animal cruelty is animal cruelty.  What is going on around here?

There are bad things going on.  Sadly, people still clamor on about KK’s in the newspaper while children are being killed by gang violence.  Bloggers myopically focus on immigration status rather than looking at the big picture.   The Manassas area needs a break.   I feel like I missed something.  What else has been going on out of the ordinary?

 

What is Eric Telling the Rest of the Nation about PWC?

I didn’t know that Greg Letiecq sent Eric and Annabel to Mr. Fernandez and that sign. I never asked. I assumed they had just stumbled on it.

In the radio, Eric asks the people to not be judgemental of the people of Prince William. He explains his position and presents himself as a moderate. Having talked to Eric at length, many times, he isn’t too far off the mark.

See what you think. It is a totally different perspective from that which you have been led to believe.

Meanwhile, those in Manassas City who continue to blame Eric and Annabel might want to send a thank you note to Mr. L. It seems he got things going. 

As we prepare for this film to go national, into millions of households, it is good to know these things.

[note:  this thread is about 9500 Liberty and not about other organizations. ]

“9500 Liberty” to Air on MTV

“9500 LIBERTY” TO PREMIERE ON MTV NETWORKS, PRESS SCREENING TONIGHT
Award-winning film on SB 1070 precursor will reach 100 million homes starting Sept. 26

view the   9500 Liberty trailer

Arizona   premiere poster for 9500 Liberty

(NY, New York) Sept. 7th, 2010 – MTV Networks will announce upcoming air dates for 9500 LIBERTY at a high-profile screening/panel discussion in New York this evening.  The critically acclaimed documentary chronicles the social, political, and economic impact of The Immigration Resolution, a law closely resembling Arizona’s SB 1070 that was briefly implemented in a Virginia county in 2008.
9500 LIBERTY
screening, panel discussion, cocktail reception
NY Times Building
620 8th Avenue (Entrance on 41 street), Time Square}
5:30 to 8:00 pm
  • John Quinones, ABC Primetime Anchor
  • Annabel Park, 9500 Liberty co-director and Coffee Party founder
  • Corey Stewart, Prince William County BOCS Chairman
  • Chuck Wexler, E.D. of the Police Executives Research Forum
  • Maria Kumar, Voto Latino Co-founder 
  • Paul Rodriguez, Comedian
  • moderated by New York Times reporter Fernanda Santos

9500 LIBERTY is directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler, founders of the Coffee Party, which holds its first national convention in Louisville, KY Sept. 24-26, the same weekend as the film’s cable premiere.

Park will speak on tonight’s panel along side Tea Party favorite Corey Stewart, a leading figure in 9500 LIBERTY.  This will provide an opportunity for the two to reconcile conflicting accounts of events portrayed in the film.  For instance, Stewart has publicly denied the vote on April 29, 2008 that removed the most controversial aspect of the law (a key scene in the film), and made claims about immigration and crime that contradict statistics cited in the film. 

 As Chairman of the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Stewart used “The Immigration Resolution” as the center of his reelection campaign in 2007.  Implemented on March 6, 2008, Stewart’s law required police officers to question people they had “probable cause” to suspect may be in the country illegally.  With Arizona’s version pending in federal court and other jurisdictions around the country considering similar measures, Prince William County remains the only jurisdiction in the United States to implement such a mandate.  Stewart is now lobbying to revive the law, this time throughout Virginia.

The cable debut of 9500 LIBERTY will be on Sunday, September 26th at 8pm (ET/PT) on MTV2, mtvU (MTV’s 24-hour college network), and Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más (formerly MTV Tr3s) as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. 

“The decisions our elected representatives make on immigration reform now will impact our audience for generations,” said Stephen Friedman, EVP & GM of MTV Networks. “As the national debate rages, MTV is committed to engaging America’s youth as informed and active participants – and sharing this powerful film is a great way to start that process.”

“To compete in the 21st century, America needs a new generation of leaders who have grown up thriving in the richness of diversity,” Park said. “People under 30 know intuitively where we need to go as a nation.  We need to hear from them more often.”

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All Eyes Still on Prince William County

All eyes are still on Prince William County as the residents of Arizona feel our pain at the Harkins Valley Art Theater near Phoenix.  The theater has been packed each night for screenings of 9500Liberty. Eric Byler has been in the Phoenix area for approximately a week now.  This afternoon he hosted a radio show with 3 Republican business people who disapprove of the law passed, SB 1070.

Many folks from Arizona now know all about 0ur county.  A write up in AZ newspaper Phoenix New Times revealed:

The film chronicles the heated battle over an Immigration Resolution (drafted by the same folks who brought us SB 1070), in Prince William County, Virginia that passed in 2008 and was quickly repealed because of devastating economic effects (read more about it here). 9500 Liberty captures both sides of the battle in Prince William County through numerous interviews and video clips, some of which provoked the audience at Harkins into both jeers and cheers.

For example, when a woman tells the Prince William County Board of District Supervisors that they must “Never forget 9/11 and who did that to us – illegals,” the audience at Harkins Valley Art let out a collective grumble. Minutes later, they roared in unified laughter when a man tells the Supervisors, “Don’t confuse the 9/11 with the 7-11.”
Naturally our own Alanna and Elena are  folk heroes and Eric is extremely busy.  That is what happens when you have directed a film on immigration and one of the biggest news events of the day suddenly becomes a highly controversial state law in Arizona rather than a resolution in a county in Virginia.
When asked by Lydia Aranda, a local Wells Fargo executive and a member of the Governor’s Latino Advisory Council,  what was the main lesson he’d  (Byler) learned in Prince William County that continues to be relevant  here  in the county, he responded:
“If [co-director] Annabel [Park] were here, I know what she’d say,” Byler replied. “The biggest lesson is that the immigrants in our community are already integrated into the economy, because the economy does not discriminate based on your national origin. A dollar is a dollar.”
Byler also denied that demonstrations and rallies were productive in our area.  He said that community leaders and business people spoke with supervisors individually and those private conversations are what ultimately lead to a softer approach.
It looks like a home boy it one out of the ball park with 95ooLiberty.
Full story at Phoenix New Times.

The Ugly Side of the Real Estate Market

What was supposed to be a boon for home buyers, especially first time home buyers, has fallen flat.  Many folks out there trying to buy houses are being squeezed out of the housing market by cash laden investors.  Even those bidding more than asking price are not getting called back. 

The investors are paying cash and buying ‘as is’ at discount prices.  No regular buyer who needs financing and inspections can compete with the cash-rich investors.  Investors are also back to flipping houses.  The buy-fix up- resell cycle has begun again. 

The down side for those of us who aren’t even trying to buy a house is that those foreclosures will now become rental property.  It is no secret that neighborhoods with a disproportionate number of rental properties goes downhill much faster than where homes are owned by the occupants. 

According to the Washington Post:

“There are bidding wars out there. It’s like the 2005 market but at discount prices,” said Stella Barbour, a real estate agent at Jobin Realty in Northern Virginia. “I put in offers for my clients only to find there are already multiple offers. They always choose the one that’s all cash.”

Some of these cash-only investors use their own money to buy properties, while others borrow it at high interest rates from other private sources.

Chris “CC” Cormack, an investor, said she used her own money to beat out four other offers and buy a townhouse in Ashburn this year. The home, a foreclosure, was listed for $214,500, and she got it for $220,000. Cormack fixed it up and sold it a few months later for a sizable profit.

“It had been under contract twice before, and both of those loans fell apart,” said Cormack, who is also a real estate agent. “By the time I came along with all-cash offer, the bank said, ‘I’ll take it.’ They did not want to take a chance on the deal falling apart again.”

Many of the real estate practices are happening right here in Prince William County:

Investors have reemerged with brute force in the Washington region’s real estate market over the past few months, triggering bidding wars in some neighborhoods teeming with foreclosed properties and hindering traditional home buyers such as Melissa Diggins.

Diggins and her fiance, George Mills, made a dozen offers on houses in Prince William County but lost more than half of them to investors making all-cash offers.

Frustrated, they gave up their search for a new home, convinced that they could not compete.

“We thought to ourselves: ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Diggins, a graphic designer. “We’d sometimes offer more than the asking price and we wouldn’t even get a call back.  It was crazy.”

A year or so ago we heard several commentators singing the praises of the Prince William County Real Estate market. They spoke of how things were snapping back and how new families were moving in, returning the neighborhoods to the pastoral  scenes before the ‘illegals’ came to town. In the first place, many of the foreclosures were not illegal immigrants or even Latino families.  They were families who simply had bitten off more than they could chew.  This new situation truly reminds us of being careful what we wish for.  Homeowner occupancy is generally always superior to a neighborhood of rental units when it comes to homeowner upkeep and the general conditions of the community. One can expect both cities to be undergoing the same real estate situation.

East Coast Serial Rapist Comes to PWC for Halloween

 

    <————-    Location of assaults in the area

A serial rapist who has been terrorizing the East Coast since 1997 arrived in time on Halloween to attack and rape 3 teenage girls who were out trick or treating in Dale City.  This rapist has been on the loose and has attacked in 4 states:  Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia. 

 

A video update has been added to the end of this post.  It is a multi-jurisdictional  police press conference containing critical information for the public.

His DNA connects him to the following crimes:

 

  • Feb. 12, 1997 – 6800 block of Marlboro Pike in Forestville, Md.
  • Aug. 20, 1997 – 4600 block of Silver Hill Road in Suitland, Md.
  • July 3, 1998 – 2900 block of 31st Avenue in Temple Hills, Md.
  • June 19, 1999 – Richmond Highway/Memorial Street in Alexandria, Va.
  • Jan. 13, 2000 – 7300 block of Fordson Road in Alexandria, Va.
  • July 8, 2000 – 1900 block of Beechwood Road in Hyattsville, Md.
  • Nov. 20, 2000 – Timber Forest Drive/Edsall Road in Alexandria, Va.
  • May 24, 2001 – Plaza Street in Leesburg, Va.
  • Aug. 16, 2001 – 4500 block of 23rd Parkway in Temple Hills, Md.
  • Dec. 28, 2001 – 3700 block of Rolling Hills Avenue in Alexandria, Va.
  • Nov. 28, 2006 – Valley View Drive in Cranston, RI
  • Jan. 10, 2007 – Smith Avenue in New Haven, Conn.
  • Oct. 31, 2009 – 4300 block of Dale Boulevard in Woodbridge

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9/11 Terrorist Plotters to be Tried in NYC

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that 5 terrorist plotters from 9/11 would be brought from Gitmo to NYC to be tried in federal court. Some of the rogues are Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh and others whose names cannot be pronounced.

The announcement has caused a firestorm not only in the political community but also in the legal community. Perhaps the greatest gripe is that these terrorists will be afforded all the liberties entitled to a US citizen. There are also worries about turning the trial into a lengthy 3 ring circus. Then there are about 20 more reasons, pro and con for this action that I am sure our contributors would like to share their opinion about.

On another terrorist note, According to News and Messenger:

NEW YORK (AP) — In what could be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, federal prosecutors sought to take over four U.S. mosques, a New York City skyscraper and 100 acres in Prince William County owned by a Muslim organization suspected of being controlled by the Iranian government.

Prosecutors on Thursday filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The seizures include land in the Catharpin area. The addresses listed on the federal criminal complaint are 4300 and 4204 Aldie Road

In the Iranian case, there are ties to the funding of nuclear weapons. It appears that the property was just that: property. Nothing nefarious has been found at the site, according to other sources.

Witch-Hunt in Prince William

Nativist Letiecq Attempts to Intimidate Numerous Members of PWC Community

Just days after Help Save Manassas was classified as “an extremist organization that employs hateful rhetoric” by the Anti-Defamation League, the man responsible for earning this classification for his followers has sunk to a new low.

A private email I wrote eleven days ago found its way to Greg Letiecq, who has posted a new thread on his blog intending to intimidate and persecute, not only me, but everyone who was on the email list.

In it, I questioned the judgment of Gainesville District Supervisor John Stirrup, who tomorrow will ask his fellow Supervisors to vote to approve his appointment of Robert Duecaster to the Prince William County Strategic Goals Task Force. I have made no secret of my feelings about Duecaster’s racist writings, or his infamous outbursts before our Board of Supervisors (see previous thread). But now Letiecq is trying to intimidate and defame those who received the email (many of whom did not respond).

Supervisor Stirrup’s apparent trust in Duecaster — the only man in this county who has personally threatened the Board of Supervisors with more hatred and rage than Letiecq himself — is just one symptom of the toxicification of Prince William County at the hands of Letiecq, his blog, and his extremist organization. The Center for American Progress has documented how intimidation and incitement of racial conflict are common methods of attack for anti-immigrant organizations.

The persecution began last year, targeting the Hispanic community, though often worded to focus on “illegal” immigrants rather than the Hispanic community in general. But it did not stop when many members of the Hispanic community left the county. It did not stop when our county’s Citizen Satisfaction Survey revealed that both the Hispanic and the African American communities have lost trust in county government and the police force.

For more than a year, Letiecq has been targeting anyone who dares to oppose his relentless attempts to dominate our county government by exploiting his influence over Supervisor Stirrup and Chairman Corey Stewart. Now, he is not only targeting those who criticize him, he is targeting anyone who associates with his critics, or thinks about joining them.

Letiecq has made a habit of attacking me. But he knows I am not intimidated. He knows I will stand up to him.

Many of the those who received my personal email have not criticized Letiecq or taken any action to challenge his greed for power. By publishing their names without permission and “identifying” them, he has violated their privacy in a despicable attempt to make them appear guilty of some infraction, and bully them into silence.

I for one am not afraid of Greg Letiecq’s Neo-McCarthyism. And I am not afraid to say I oppose the appointment of Robert Duecaster to our county’s Strategic Goals Task Force. But more importantly, I oppose the persecution tactics Letiecq has employed to unduly influence this county government, its leaders, and its citizens.

P.S. Question for Greg Letiecq: Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

MJM: Not too embarrassed

From today’s edition of the Potomac News/Manassas Journal Messenger:

OUR OPINION
Published: July 24, 2008

As noted in a recent editorial in a nearby national newspaper, it’s been a year since the Board of Supervisors in Prince William County “launched its drive to hound, harass and humiliate illegal immigrants.” The editorial cites what it calls the toxic effects of the board’s resolution against illegal immigration and claims that “across the nation,” our county has become known as an intolerant community.

We have said before that the resolution doesn’t accomplish anything valuable and the machinations necessary to pursue the policy set by that resolution — like all the hoops through which the county police must jump — have certainly put an unnecessary strain the pocketbooks of taxpayers.

But your local paper agrees with the national newspaper that the board’s action is embarrassing for most of us who live here.

It’s not necessarily this newspaper’s job to practice boosterism and, certainly, part of our job is to point out some of the blemishes we see when the community looks in the mirror, but a year after the board’s regrettable move, we thought it might be appropriate to remind ourselves of the county’s attributes of which we can be proud.

So we turned to the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce for some assessments that are far from embarrassing:

1. Our location: We are close the capital of the free world and home to many federal government employees. We have access to good housing and affordable office space.

2. Transportation: Yes, we have issues, but we also have access to three major airports and two smaller ones and a county government that, in the past, has stepped up to build needed some road improvements like the Prince William Parkway and the extended Va. 234.

3. Education: The county is home to a university research and development facility at George Mason and a huge public school system, where teachers work hard to foster success among 72,000 students. (That’s more people than a small city.)

4. Quality of life: We have a couple of symphony orchestras, several community choral groups a thriving theater community, national parks, local parks and — despite the impression left by the
resolution — a diverse population that brings much to any table. We also have a huge heart, demonstrated by ACTS and SERVE and many smaller groups that focus on taking care of those in need.

Yes, that 1-year-old resolution is an ugly zit, but the overall reflection from our mirror shows us a pretty good place to live, work and play.