Sometimes there is story that just catches my attention.  This is one of those times.

Here is the summary from a local newspaper.

SEBASTIAN, Fla. – Kelley Hunt Smith of Florida said it’s been a nightmare since  her daughter, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt, was arrested on a charge of “lewd and  lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years old.”

Smith said Kaitlyn became friends with an underage female student at  Sebastian River High School at the beginning of the school year and later began  dating. Smith said she never considered the implications of the  relationship.
Read more…

What I find fascinating is that the lead up to the Iraq war, with the complete fabricated threat of “yellow cake” and “centrifuge” tanks or whatever they supposedly were, but were actually NOT, was never even a blip on the radar screen to republicans.

Cohen wrote a great op-ed, tongue and cheek, on the Benghazi Syndrome.  Anyone remember all the investigations into  Clinton?  Is this the path we are headed down?  Benghazi was a horrible tragedy, their has been enough investigations, we know there was a screw up and it isn’t about stupid talking points, it was about lack of security.

Benghazi Syndrome is a grave malady of the noggin, the symptoms of which are a compulsion to grossly exaggerate matters and to compare almost anything to Watergate (see Watergate Syndrome, DSM-IV). Patient Zero in this regard is Sen. Lindsey Graham, a usually affable Republican from South Carolina who has suggested that the Benghazi episode warrants an investigation by a special congressional committee, just like Iran-contra and — drum roll, please — Watergate.

As a nation we invaded Iraq under false pretenses , sacrificed thousands of American lives, spent untold BILIONS, and for what?  To spread democracy.  How is that working out, really great in Egypt, where the religious Muslim Brotherhood is now in control.  Fabulous, just fabulous.  To this day, I remain shocked that the Republicans showed NO interest in finding out how such a colossal mistake was made, how we ended up invading a country that had NOTHING to do with 9-11.

Read more…

Finally common sense may prevail for Manassas City Republicans, I wish they could export some of that to Congress!

Since when was investing in your “home” a waste of money?  We invest in new appliances when they break, new cars when they begin to cost more money then what they are worth, new roofs when they leak, etc etc!

Since when is allowing your community to fall apart a conservative value?  Good for the Manassas City Republicans for advocating investment.  Keeping your community first class requires money, requires forethought, and requires a plan of action.

The Manassas City Council passed 4-2 one of the city’s biggest real-estate tax increases in years on Monday, generating dollars to begin a series of capital construction projects city leaders say are needed.

The $100.3 million fiscal ‘14 operating budget, which the council approved, will pay for sidewalk widening in the town’s historic Old Town business district, a new elementary school and drainage improvements, among other projects.

TEA Party politics has no place in running government.  Is there some waste in government, well yes, no one denies that reality.  But TEA party politics has a false foundation that a society can survive with little to no government intervention.   Get rid of the EPA, get rid of the federal income tax, get rid of investment in science and medicine, stop funding the ARTS, allow bridges and roads to crumble, allow healthcare to be a privilege as opposed to a right, etc etc.  What is left to ensure that a community can thrive?

Here are the questions I have.  What makes a cohesive society?  What are the values of  a “community” and how are those values outwardly expressed?

How do we ensure that individual progress can also support community success ,which, in the end, benefits everyone!

There has been a lot of press lately on the Bi-County Parkway/North-South Corridor.  The reasons to oppose this wasteful road are many.  You can read all about it on the Prince William Conservation Alliance website,  Myth vs Fact.

In a nutshell, this massive highway will save commuters 9 minutes while costing tax payers over one billion dollars and causing irreparable damage, fiscally and environmentally to Prince William County.

Yep folks, in exchange for decimating our county, using it like a cut through to benefit the Dulles Corridor commercial base, we get to save 9 minutes of commute time.  Does the state really think that is a fair trade?  Aren’t PWC citizens worth more?  Apparently not, apparently our price tag is pretty cheap.

Corey Stewart is prancing around as Sean Connaughton’s new buddy.  Maybe he forgets how much Sean despised him when he was first elected as Occoquan Supervisor.  Maybe Corey forgets that he once was on opposing sides of Sean.  Maybe Corey needs to understand that HE has now turned into the man he once reviled.

It isn’t too late for citizens to fight for what is in the best interest of not only Prince William County, but  also the state.  This Bi-County Parkway is simply irresponsible on so many levels.

The citizen meeting is tonight, Bull Run Middle School, 7 p.m. , cafeteria.

The Holocaust Museum celebrates twenty years.  I remember my first visit there, I was overwhelmed.  Reading about that time period is just not the same as being handed a “passport” of human being that went through the holocaust and not knowing til the end of the “tour” whether your new identity survived.

I have been several times since that first time, and I am probably due for a  visit.  I haven’t been since having children, and I imagine, my feelings will be different, evolved as a mom, as a Jewish mom.

It is obvious to me though that human beings haven’t changed much since that time period, and as the survivors of the concentration camps die, the responsibility of us all to learn the lessons and pass them on become more critical.

The Holocaust Museum is the testament to evil that man can do, but it is as strongly a tribute to the those who stood up against hate, sometimes, at the cost of their own lives.

As we reflect upon the lessons of the Holocaust, ask yourself, what would you have done?

I invite you to watch my Grandmother’s cousin story, Izzy, an Auschwitz survivor. The password is Izzy.

http://vimeo.com/19904869

Don’t miss out on this fabulous home grown event sponsored by the Prince William Conservation Alliance!

What a wonderful opportunity, at no cost, to enjoy the beauty of Prince William County.

http://www.pwconserve.org/merrimacfarm/bluebellfestival/

Please join us to welcome spring and view the spectacular display of Virginia Bluebells that carpet the floodplain along Cedar Run for nearly a mile. In the words of one visitor, it’s like walking through Oz.

A bake sale and a hand-painted rain barrel raffle will benefit stewardship projects at Merrimac Farm will round out the event. Concessions and food from N.C. Ribs on Wheels will be available for purchase.

Schedule of Events

Tours last about 90 minutes and take an easy one-mile walk through the floodplain. Each tour has a special focus, although leaders also cover other interesting sights you see along the way. Bring binoculars, cameras and the kids!

Hello, Governor McDonnell’s non-partisan office. How may we bully you?

So I called the Govenors office, not the first I have done this mind you, and spoke with the most obnoxious young man.  He wanted to bully me into a debate.  I will add, every other time I have called the Govenor’s office, I have spoken with a perfectly lovely black woman.  She is always polite.  Well, what a difference this experience was for me.

I wish I had asked his name now.  He answered the phone and I told him I was calling about the amendment that would inhibit women buying abortion coverage with their own money in the insurance exchange.  I asked him, rhetorically of course, why republicans always seemed to rally around the premise of small government, but when it comes to a womans vagina/i.e. reproductive system, they were more than happy to use government power to justify their means.

He then proceeded to interupt me and instead of asking me for my name etc, he wanted to debate me on the subject.  I told him I had no interest in debating him, that I simply called to register my disgust.  Well, he proceeded to tell me that I had “called a non partisan office”.  Can someone please tell me how Govenor McDonnell’s office is non partisan.  Isn’t he a republican?  Am I in the some twighlight zone episode?

Read more…

Passover is the most ritualistic dinner in Judaism.  In my home, I lead the Seder.  Every year I try to make the story of the exodus relevant not only for me, but especially, for my children.  It is a time to reflect upon what freedom means.  It is a time to remember that as a participant of a civilized society, one must remember to lift up our fellow “travelers” in this often complicate world.

The Story of Passover is about faith, bravery, kindness and redemption.   A life lesson that never loses it’s relevance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no-longer-centered-just-on-readings-many-passover-seders-have-creative-twists/2013/03/24/cf41e9c2-91d6-11e2-9cfd-36d6c9b5d7ad_story.html

This year we will have wind up frogs that jump on the table, masks of the 10 plagues, chocolate covered marshmallow locusts and frogs!

Well, North Dakota’s legislature has approved the first Personhood Amendment.  So this is what American “taliban” looks like in my opinion.

North Dakota lawmakers voted on Friday afternoon to pass a “personhood” abortion ban, which would endow fertilized eggs with all the rights of U.S. citizens and effectively outlaw abortion. The measure, which passed the Senate last month, passed the House by a 57-35 vote and now heads to a ballot vote, likely in the next November election.

A personhood ban could have far-reaching consequences even beyond abortion care, since it will charge doctors who damage embryos with criminal negligence. Doctors in the state say it will also prevent them from performing in vitro fertilization, and some medical professionals have vowed to leave the state if it is signed into law.

So if I were to go to the CVS and buy a pregnancy test, do I have to register the results?  If I have a spontaneous abortion, will my doctor  have to go before a legal committee and defend the cycle of nature?

Read more…

One of my husband’s favorite sayings is “Captain Obvious” when someone says something so incredibly, well, obvious.   There are parents in the PWC community that have suddenly come to the realization that our class sizes are woefully too full, so full, that quality instruction is being jepoardized.   PWC school has reached the state’s legal limit for class size.

PWCS raised class sizes to the state limits this school year in response to current budget constraints. In the executive summary of the 2014 budget, Walts notes that reductions of teacher staffing ratios (or increases in class sizes) have led to savings of $4.3 million at the middle-school level and $5.3 million at the high school level. Walts also notes that next year’s budget does not restore those cuts.

In response to concerns about class sizes, Walts’s office has said it would cost $15 million annually to reduce average class sizes by one student at all levels. The Code of Virginia sets the following maximum class-size limits: 29 for kindergarten classes; 30 for grades one through three; and 35 for grades four through six. English classes are limited to 24 in grades one through 12, otherwise there are no state maximum class-size limits for grades seven and above, according to Dena Rosenkrantz, an attorney with the Virginia Education Association.

Read more…

You know, maybe it’s time for a little fun and relaxation, time to take a breath and remember that life is short and children can be our best way to ground ourselves.

There is a community easter egg hunt being organized by the Coles District, via Supervisor Nohe.

Look, in my house, the non denomination Easter Bunny comes every year, he leaves baskets full of goodies at the front door for my kids.  I LOVE watching their faces as they delve through the basket.  I have to get my plug in though for fair trade chocolate here.

Here is the information if you are interested in attending!

Here we go again folks.  For all those people with their axel’s rapped around a pole over the tax rate, bad development’s like Stonehaven is what ultimately drives our taxes into the ground.  Who builds the schools to support these developments?  Yes, that’s right, taxpayers.  Who builds the roads to support the several thousand people now crowding roads?  Yes, that’s right, the taxpayers.  Who has to build more firehouses and hire more police?  Yes, that’s right, the taxpayers.

Stonehaven is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and the Grizzly Football leadership (via their most recent blast  email begging members to support Stonehaven), once again, is doing the bidding of Wally Covington and Corey Stewart.  It wasn’t enough that they were instrumental in providing cover for the intrusion in the Rural Crescent via Avondale?   If the Grizzly leadership team had any sense, they would understand that advocating for massive development will NOT solve our infrastructure problems, it will only contribute to more overcrowding of schools and roads. Sort of like needing to lose weight but eating hot fudge triple ice cream sundaes in hopes you will drop a few pounds.  BTW, if only that were true!

Corey Stewart, lo many elections cycles ago (well, only 2006 actually), ran on a smart growth platfrom, I even had one of his huge signs, practically a billboard, on the frontage of my property “Corey Stewart, Supporting Smarth Growth”!  Guess what project was his poster boy for a poor land use decision that would ultimately cost tax payers?  Yes,  you are correct, Brentswood.  Well, Stonehaven is simply a reduced reincarnation of Brentswood.

I hope our BOCS votes no tomorrow to initiate this CPA, if Corey, Wally,  and Pete truly want to wear the mantle of low taxes, they have no choice but to vote no.  Turning a few hundred housed into a few thousand  houses is fiscal stupidity, plain and simple.

write to the BOCS and urge them to just say NO and protect your tax dollars!

cstewart@pwcgov.org wcovington@pwcgov.org mnohe@pwcgov.org mcaddigan@pwcgov.org

gainesville@pwcgov.org jjenkins@pwcgov.org mcmay@pwcgov.org fprincipi@pwcgov.org

Standing room only for many county residents

Apparently many Prince William County residents are extremely concerned about the negative impact of the proposed North/South Corridor, also called the Tri-County Parkway.  This roadway will pick up at Dumfries Road and run down the western end of Prince William Parkway.  The new road will begin and  follow Pageland to Route 50 in Loudoun County.  The actual details are still murky.   Apparently Supervisor Candland was only expecting a small crowd. Well, instead of around 50, there were 250, at least– standing room only in the cafeteria.

Residents were forced to look at maps that had little information, vague descriptions of how the road will function, and little to no firm dates of when the road will be built.  The VDOT segment of the meeting was incredibly boring, of little value and frustrating to say the least.

What was made abundantly clear, was the intent of the road  to “move traffic from 95 through to the Dulles Corridor because that is where the state has its priority in the economic engine of  Dulles Airport.”  Additionally there is a need “to move cargo trucks to Dulles”.

Read more…

Who doesn’t see the writing on the wall with this transportation bill!  You have roads being approved that will open up rural land, like the north-south corridor, and a convenient new taxing ability by certain Northern Virginia localities in order to build more roads in their jurisdiction.

So, NOW developers will have an excuse to build in undeveloped areas that will need massive new road infrastructure and who will foot the bill for that expense?  Hmmm, I imagine we will.  And Corey, who is vocally and fervently supporting this new unneeded cargo transportaion road to Dulles Airport, is trying to sell us the snake oil that he won’t tax Prince William County residents?  Not buyin’ it folks and I hope you don’t either.

Our Board of Supervisors has been relatively silent on this massive transportation bill and its subsequent taxes on Virginia residents, but let us not also forget, their silence on the north south corridor.  How is that road financed?  By the Governor’s tax bill.  And where is Corey’s outrage……yes, once again, that is crickets you hear.

No, Corey, you aren’t allowed to feign outrage over taxes on one hand while your support a detrimental road that will dissect PWC.

No Corey, you are not  allowed to be self righteous over the state daring to give localities the ability to tax residents for roads when you clearly advocate for a road that you know full well will open up all kinds of cheap land for high density development.

I invite citizens to attend the meeting on the North South Corridor this evening, 7:30, at Bull Run Middle School in Gainesville.  Stand up against unnecessary roads in PWC and new taxes . Delegate Hugo and Supervisor Candland need to hear community voices first hand.

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.

Read more…