Its beach time. Hail the noble dolphins. Dolphins signal all is well. There are some amazing stories about dolphins rescuing people at sea.
Dolphin-human interactions are also interesting to read. Male dolphins have been known to get too aggressive with females who come in close contact.
The destructive nature of these constant attacks on the ever widening circle of county employees must end. The climate within the McCoart building is one of mistrust and confidence levels have been diminished. Whether it be for a desk, a toilet, a sink, an Easter egg hunt or the process of finding a new logo, these constant investigations and searching for wrong doing is no way to run county government. It’s like big brother is watching every move just to see if they can catch wrong doing. Who can work effectively in such an environment.
We witnessed a serious smack down during Supervisors time today. Supervisor Peter Candland, for unknown reasons, decided that it would be a good idea to attack Supervisor Frank Principi over this continued, ad nauseum, discussion over a county logo.
Pete submitted a three page, single spaced, diatribe demanding to know every single detail of who, what, when, why, where of the county directive to obtain a new logo for marketing strategies. My question is why? Why has this issue risen to the level of such intense scrutiny? Like there was some kind of fraud involved. Was it the best process or best logo choice, probably not, but the insistence on making this logo issue the next Benghazi conspiracy needs to stop.
There was an “all call” fundraising e-mail that was penned by Robyn Candland, excoriating the process and targeting Frank Principi as the “democrat” villain. Pete chose to turn his need for every nook and cranny to be inspected from a BOCS issue into a FOIA need. That is not how it should have been handled. Frank apparently thought the level of questions were over the top and formally objected . Having read them and included them in this post, I would say that I agree.
Pete chose to turn his letter into a FOIA request, an unnecessary step. What he needed to do was follow the Board’s own rules and simply find 5 supervisors to agree with his document request. Maybe, during that process, he would have realized that many questions on the last page were over the top. Asking to recreate discussions county employees had about the logo? Really? How is that even a realistic request? Asking about all information as it pertains to focus groups? Really? Why? Is this a legal investigation? How will this help get a better logo? More importantly, how will this help attract new business to PWC?
Let me throw out a heretical premise. The lack of a good logo, this just in, is NOT the reason why Prince William County is not attracting fortune 500 companies. Could it be because we have a chairman who wants to be known for going after “illegals”? Could it be because we now have a new Supervisor that insists on making mountains out of molehills? Could it be because, only a few months ago, he wanted to have a tax rate that would make any investment in infrastructure impossible? Could it be because, comparatively speaking, we spend the least per pupil than any other surrounding counties? Oh wait , maybe its because we treat our treasured parks like dumps.
I have a question. How many man-hours will it take to research all the questions Peter Candland has asked? A little birdie told me it would be hundreds of man- hours and dozens of employees. So wasting THAT kind of money is a conservative value? We aren’t talking Watergate here people, we are talking about a logo. A logo that is NOT going to be the magic panacea to fix our commercial base problem.
Blaming Frank for standing up for county employees is not the productive way to run government, nor is creating the impression of being on a witch hunt.
To see the endless letter of questions, click your heels three times to get to Oz.
And the Category 5 Sh!t-Storm begins
Read more: Washingtonpost.com
ktar.com: (Arizona)
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans on Tuesday make their most concerted effort of the year to change federal abortion law with legislation that would ban almost all abortions after a fetus reaches the age of 20 weeks.
The “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” expected to pass by a comfortable margin late Tuesday, would be a direct challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortions up to the time a fetus becomes viable. Fetal viability is generally considered to be at least 24 weeks into the pregnancy.
The measure will be ignored by the Democratic-led Senate and the White House, saying the bill is “an assault on a woman’s right to choose,” has issued a veto threat.
Even if the policy were to become law, it would almost certainly face a legal challenge. That’s a prospect supporters hope for as part of the ultimate goal of overturning Roe v. Wade.
I just want someone to tell me why extreme right wing Republican men continue to talk about their belief that women who are raped don’t get pregnant. SHUT UP already. Cause let me tell you, I know someone, someone close to me, that became pregnant after she was raped.
Right now, right now in this country, in the 21st century, once again, Republican men in congress, behaving like their religious belief system must be legislated, i.e. forced upon women (hmmm, sounds like Sharia law to me) are at it again. Their intent on outlawing ALL abortions beyond 20 weeks has begun. Now let me say here, once again, for the hard of hearing, no one WANTS an abortion, it isn’t an easy decision, nor it is an easy procedure. But this just in, women have sought abortions throughout the ages.
Space terrorist?
The White House and NASA on Tuesday will ask the public for help finding asteroids that potentially could slam into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.
Citing planetary defense, the administration has decided that the search for killer rocks in space should be the latest in a series of “Grand Challenges,” in which the government sets an ambitious goal, helps create public-private partnerships and sometimes offers prize money for innovative ideas.
“This is really a call to action to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said Monday. She said the asteroid hunt would help prove that “we’re smarter than the dinosaurs.
So if someone discovers a huge asteroid headed our way, what do we do about it? Detection is only part of this equation. Have we been too complicit about the threat of asteroids causing a Catastrophic event? Will we eventually become the next dinosaur?
RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, have used taxpayer money for a range of small personal items they should have paid for themselves under state policy, according to spending records.
The McDonnells have billed the state for body wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins and a digestive system “detox cleanse,” the records show. They also have used state employees to run personal errands for their adult children. In the middle of a workday, for example, a staffer retrieved Rachel McDonnell’s newly hemmed pants at a tailoring shop nine miles from the governor’s mansion. Another time, a state worker was dispatched to a dry cleaner 20 miles away to pick up a storage box for Cailin McDonnell’s wedding dress.
About six months into the governor’s term, the official who oversees mansion spending told the McDonnells that they should not have charged taxpayers for a number of expenses, including deodorant, shoe repairs and dry-cleaning their children’s clothing. The official asked the McDonnells to pay the state back more than $300, which they did, and also gave them a refresher on what the state will and won’t provide for occupants of the governor’s mansion.
A proposed six-mile highway outside Charlottesville is so wasteful and ill-conceived that it’s achieved literary status. It prompted best-selling novelist and area resident John Grisham to write a book implicitly denouncing it.
“The Activist,” published last month and aimed at youths ages 10 to 12, is fictional. But Grisham said it was inspired by the decades-long battle over a $245 million bypass west of the city that’s home to the University of Virginia.
Grisham, famed for such legal thrillers as “The Firm,” said the new book is about “a boneheaded bypass around a lovely little college town and all the issues that go into such a boondoggle.”
The rest of the state, and especially Northern Virginia, should be equally appalled. The road is one of the most egregious examples of a pattern in which Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration relentlessly pushes a major highway project despite abundant evidence that the money could be spent more wisely elsewhere.
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The candidates have said it all. This line up is simply amazing. Not in my Virginia…please!!
The core problem is that there can be no re-branding of the Republican Party. How do you re-brand core beliefs? If you feel homosexuality is a sin, you can’t re-brand that. If you have strong anti immigration feelings, how is that re-branded? There is no magic wand that waves away these feelings. At best, Republicans can tone down the rhetoric and stop trying to legislate the social issues. Other than that, I simply don’t know what can be done.You are still talking about the same core party members and people who vote for their beliefs. One’s common core of values simply doesn’t re brand.
Many of the moderate Republicans are chased out of office these days to the screams and shouts of “RINO!” There doesn’t seem to be room for these people under the big tent any more. some of my favorite people are moderate Republicans, which should come as no shock. I eschew zealots of any flavor.
Perhaps what we will soon hear is the swan song for the Grand Old Party. I think that is sad. Perhaps we have already heard it, as the Old Guard dies off or goes out of office, often in disgust. My feeling is the Grand Old Party died off a few years ago and the swan song was sung. What’s left? The Republicans who I just don’t feel can claim the Grand Old Party logo.
The make overs simply won’t work.
WASHINGTON — Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has vetoed a bill meant to prevent wage discrimination against women.
An aide to state Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D), who authored the equal pay bill, HB 950, said Perry’s office called on Friday to say he had vetoed it. State Sen. Wendy Davis (D), who introduced the Senate version of the legislation, told the Texas Tribune that she had received the same call.
In a statement, Thompson said she was “deeply disappointed” and “heartbroken.”
“Women will still have to struggle to receive their equal pay for their equal work,” she said.
Read more…
Response to the bi-racial Cheerios ad–
Who on earth cares about bi racial couples in this day and age? I guess there is now a war on Cheerios.
Wisconsin Senate Republicans abruptly shut off debate and moved quickly into a vote on Wednesday that approved the passage of Senate Bill 206 – a bill that, if signed into law, would mandate that women seeking an abortion would first have to undergo an ultrasound.
On Tuesday, June 11, Democrats blocked a final vote after hours of debate on this same issue. Moving into Wednesday morning with presiding Republican Senate President Mike Ellis on the WI Senate floor, only two senators, Democratic Senator Kathleen Vinehout and Republican Senator Mary Lazich, were able to speak.
There is almost nothing to say about this situation. What totally rude pigs.
Speech was cut off for everyone but the two senators.
When Lazich completed her speech, Senate Democrats attempted to extend the debate but were met with shouting from Senate President Mike Ellis (R), who demanded an immediate vote. It was then that things descended into chaos.
“It’s non-debatable! Call the roll!” he shouted. “You’re out of order!”
“You’re out of order!” an unidentified State Senator shouted back.
Scott Walker is expected to sign the ultrasound bill. He was quoted as saying ultrasound didn’t bother him. Well, I guess not.
When are these politicians going to stay out of women’s reproductive issues? Wisconsin, the U.S. Congress….no time soon I guess.
The United States has concluded that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in its fight against opposition forces, and President Obama has authorized direct U.S. military support to the rebels, the White House said Thursday.
“The president has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser. Rhodes said U.S. intelligence had determined with “high certainty” that Syrian government forces have “used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.”
There are no details as to what expanded military support means. President Obama has not committed ground troops. According to one poll, 24% of Americans do not want American involvement.
Syria’s outgunned rebels have issued urgent appeals this week for antitank and antiaircraft weaponry to counter a government offensive that is backed by Hezbollah fighters and Iranian militia forces.
“Suffice it to say this is going to be different in both scope and scale,” Rhodes said of the new assistance. Obama said last year that confirmation of chemical weapons use would cross a “red line” for the United States.
December, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Strasburg, Virginia.
Fast forward to yesterday, June 11, 2013:
Christopher Gerrit Johnson found his plans to vote in Tuesday’s primary temporarily stymied at the Strasburg Police Department before authorities agreed he had a right to cast his ballot and allowed him to do so.
Johnson’s initial trouble in voting at Strasburg High School, his designated polling place, stemmed from a “no trespassing” order banning him from Shenandoah County Public Schools property. The order was issued after an incident in mid-December when Johnson entered Sandy Hook Elementary School with a board bearing the words “high powered rifle.”
These folks have told one lie after the other. As a matter of fact, many of the women’s reproductive rights groups were hotting mad at Kathleen Sebelius and President Obama because girls under 15 had to have parental permission to get the morning after pill.
According to mediaite.com:
The Fox News watchdogs over at Media Matters have flagged another clip of conservative commentator Laura Ingraham saying something “outrageous,” which is a bit like flagging a clip of the sky being blue, but in the process, they missed the big, fat lie that Fox and Friends‘ Steve Doocy told about President Obama‘s policy on Plan B emergency contraception. The Justice Department has dropped its appeal of a judge’s ruling that the drug be made available over-the-counter, without age restrictions, which Ingraham called a “good deal for pedophiles” and statutory rapists.
The Democratic ticket for this fall’s election has been finalized. Terry McAuliffe will run for governor. Senator Ralph Northam will run for Lt. Governor, and state Senator State Mark Herring from Loudoun County will run for Attorney General.
These Democrats are a stark contrast to the Republican ticket which is one of the most conservative tickets in the history of the Old Dominion.
Voter turn out was very light. Only about 140,000 voters turned out to cast their ballot. Time to turn up the heat now.
