Moonhowlings

Still trying to follow the logic in yesterday’s rantings on BVBL:

The promotion of efforts by Mexicans Without Borders to protest Prince William County’s policies within the historic district of Manassas City by 9500Liberty, and their new appreciation for Jeff Winder and “The People United” as reasonable voices in the immigration debate leaves this film propaganda project without any credibility whatsoever. They have embraced the radical open borders crowd, allied themselves with the local arm of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and now characterize the leftist rantings of Jeff Winder as “prohpetic words”. I guess if one could consider Karl Marx’s rantings as prophesy, this would fit pretty well, but not too many Virginians think there’s a lot of value in the Communist Manifesto.

Can anyone help me understand this? 9500Liberty has a video of Jeff Winder speaking at Citizens’ Time and that means they have ‘embraced the radical open borders crowd’? What about this video with Robert Duecaster aka Advocator aka ResolutionMan have they not too embraced the other extreme?

By Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press.

According to the Wasington Post, the drop in ESOL students isn’t truly saving the schools the $6 million that Corey repeatedly suggests. If we remove the $2 million of additional state funding then the ‘savings’ start to look more like $4 million. At this point we start to reach numbers that according to Corey himself are insignificant in an $850+ million dollar budget. Of course, if the trend continues it could have an affect on school construction etc… This year’s double digit losses in real estate assessments combined with a staggering forecloser rate and an over abundance of homes on the market that now appear to be selling at dirt cheap prices leads me to believe next year’s assessments will again suffer debilitating losses. How does this translate into next year’s budget since schools are mainly funded through real estate assessment taxes, only time will tell.

State education aid is distributed to school systems according to poverty and enrollment data and provides nearly half of Prince William’s annual school funding. When students leave a school system, so does state funding. David S. Cline, director of financial services for Prince William schools, estimated that the reduction in state funding this school year because of the ESOL student exodus totaled $2 million. But the school system was unable to reduce spending accordingly because students left from many schools. Officials could not reduce teaching staff, for example, or send back textbooks.

The Washington Post has a front page story about a legal immigrant who was picked up by Immigration Customs Enforcement officials for a decade old conviction of buying stolen jewelry. She now sits in a detention facility thousands of miles from her family and is not receiving medical treatment for a cancer that she fears has returned. This seems to be yet another example of an immigration system gone awry, begging for some sanitiy.

According to the InsideNova, as of late April, O’Meara’s Old Town Manassas Restaurant closed their doors after 5 years in business. Equally as shocking to learn was the radio duo of Don & Mike has ceased to exist. From what I’ve read Mike Source aka Don Geronimo has taken an early retirement. Some of you might be aware that Don’s wife was killed in an automobile accident a few years back and apparently has decided it too painful to continue with the show. Mike O’Meara apparently has decided to continue his radio show which can still be heard at 106.7 from 3-7pm.

Honestly, with 4 children – one being a teenager, I rarely get a chance to control the radio dial. We mostly end up listening to the ipod and the sirius satellite radio anyways and only occassionally end up using the regular radio. It’s sad to see an established radio show fold-up and also disappointing that a city restaurant has shutdown.

I keep checking all the major networks, certain that the headlines will soon read – Clinton Concedes. However, no matter how many times I reload the page, that headline will simply not appear. In fact, what does jump out at me is that she loaned her campaign somewhere around $6.5 million last month. Yikes! She won’t say ‘Uncle’ no matter how tightly her arm gets twisted but it’s about time that someone calls the match. From all the mark-ups of possible scenarios it now appears impossible that she will catch-up to Obama, so it seems reasonable that she would resign herself to that fact and bow out gracefully. Can someone talk some sense into her, please?

Herndon holds elections today and all eyes are on the race for Mayor. Harlon Reece looks to be a consensus builder and hopefully if elected will be able to turn around Herndon’s reputation.

When our forclosure rate was number one in the state, there was no place to go, BUT up.  It is important that forclosed homes are purchased, as each vacant home will cost the taxpayers $30,000.  We can all hope that with the better press regarding the modification to the “probable cause” portion of the immigration resolution,  that times will begin to turn around.  There are still tough economic times ahead for the nation as a whole with the housing crisis, but we can hope that the incredibly cheap housing in PW, not exactly what I want to be known for, will at least soften the double forclosure rate we experienced.   I have this horrible feeling though, that we were more than happy to have all these immigrants here to help build the community and now we can offer cheap housing because so many felt the need to leave their dreams behind, not wanting to live in a community enveloped in fear and hate.  Now, before some people start yellin’ about how the resolution wasn’t to blame for this mess, I agree, we would be, like the rest of the nation, suffering through the housing crisis, but PW was hit especially hard and we do know first hand stories of people leaving, legal immigrants, not wanting to reside in PW County because of the anti-Hispanic climate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/03/AR2008050301095.html

I (Elena) used this information in a letter to the editor I wrote after the appearance of the KKK in Manassas. Why, we should be asking ourselves, is it possible for the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups to build membership by using illegal immigration as their marketing tool ? You can see from this blog, that there are plenty of reasonable people with legitimate concerns, so how are these groups exploiting citizens concerns? How did their extremist rhetoric become mainstream and how do we address this very troubling development?

New York, NY, February 6, 2007 … The Ku Klux Klan, which just a few years ago seemed static or even moribund compared to other white supremacist movements such as neo-Nazis, experienced “a surprising and troubling resurgence” during the past year due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The League, which monitors the activities of racist hate groups and reports its findings to law enforcement and policymakers, has documented a noticeable spike in activity by Klan chapters across the country. The KKK believes that the U.S. is “drowning” in a tide of non-white immigration, controlled and orchestrated by Jews, and is vigorously trying to bring this message to Americans concerned or fearful about immigration.

“If any one single issue or trend can be credited with re-energizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America,” said Deborah M. Lauter, ADL Civil Rights Director. “Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has, in turn, helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity.”

http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/immigration.asp

What’s happened today?

• Filmmakers Annabel Park & Eric Byler debut on Wolf Blitzer and have CNN article.
• The County has now posted the newly modified resolution.
• BVBL continues the pursuit on Chief Deane complete with an online smack-down that has now spilled over to Virginia Virtucon.  This tactic previously backfired and reminds me of the saying –  ’insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the expectation of a different result.’ 
• Thousands gather in cities around the Country.  Hopefully we’ll have some pictures of the event in D.C.

ABC News 7 Report concerning the changes made to the ‘Immigration Resolution’ which will now check status of only those arrested and do away with the ‘probable cause’ part of the resolution.

Check out this precise and elucidating story filed by Dan Genz in The DC Examiner outlining the changes to the Immigration Resolution as they apply to real life. Dan also reports that we are now engaged in a new round of fighting, this time a “spin” war over who gets to declare victory.

Also, Channel 7 aired a story last night that communicates a lot despite its brevity.

The modification of the “Probable Cause” portion of the Immigration Resolution is good for Prince William County. A unanimous vote last night by the Board of Supervisors means that law enforcement here is no longer fundamentally unfair.

PWC Police Officers will no longer be required to check documentation status for minor traffic stops. Therefore equal protection under the law has been restored to citizens and legal residents who fit “probable cause” indicators such as language proficiency.

Police Officers are no longer in needless danger of being accused of racial profiling. Like most other counties in the United States, we will again check legal status only after arrest. Furthermore, legal status will be questioned for ANYONE who is arrested, thus dispelling the appearance of prejudice.

It is a great relief not to have to worry about a nightmare scenario where one of Prince William County’s Finest finds him or herself dragged into court, forced to explain that, “It wasn’t because of her skin color that I arrested a legal citizen who forgot her drivers’ license, it was the way she pronounced the letter ‘L.’”

High praise for Frank Principi and Martin Nohe for working together to outmaneuver Corey Stewart and John Stirrup. High praise for John Jenkins for bringing to bear on this contentious debate his years of experience working out the details of budgets and negotiations in the best interest of the county. High praise for Maureen Caddigan and Mike May. I’m sure it took long hours of soul-searching and ultimately, personal courage for these moderate Republicans to go against their conservative colleagues, Stewart and Stirrup. This progress would not have been possible without moderate Republicans and Democrats working across party lines for the common good. Thank goodness Wally Covington came around to join the moderates and abandon extreme partisan ideology. I will sleep tonight knowing that Corey Stewart and John Stirrup’s last stand has ended.

Thank you to everyone who spoke out on this issue, whether for or against the Resolution, whether for or against the change that was made tonight. I actually had some friendly conversations with people who supported the Resolution. Overall, the mood was much more civil, even neighborly, than the spectacle in October. I saw glimmers of the community that we once were before we became so divided. I get the feeling that many people, including some HSM members, would like to stop fighting and move on.

Some questions remain.

1) Will this change be enough to help Prince William County avert economic consequences of the Immigration Resolution that have already begun to set in?

2) Will immigrant communities, both documented and undocumented, and the net economic benefit they bring with them return to our county?

3) Will the reputation of Prince William County be restored, allowing us to successfully compete with other counties in the DC Metro area for new businesses and new investment?

Only time will tell. But this is an encouraging and significant step.

The Board will have both a 2:oopm session today; and comments concerning the funding of the ‘Immigration Resolution’ should be addressed then as there is no evening session. Everyone should be prepared for the ‘foot soldiers’ to once again descend on the McCoart building. Hopefully, the Supervisors won’t retreat and will have the courage to face this head-on. It’s gone on long enough and there’s simply no money to fund this whole thing.

Here’s the agenda for the meeting.

See you there.