Monthly Archives: July 2010

The article’s out!

I’m happy so many local bloggers got interviewed for it! And doubly happy that I found a new blog through it: Life in Loudoun County. The more voices blogging about local issues, the better, in my opinion.

Links to the blogs mentioned in the article are after the jump.Too Conservative

The True Adventures of the Doorbell Queen

Equality Loudoun

In Through the Out Door

Leesburg Tomorrow

Suburban Fizz

Hooda Thunk

Nova Town Hall

Living in Loco

The Casey Group

and Life in Loudoun County

Interviews, Interviews

I’ve been interviewed twice recently for two different things. One is a book about campaigning, the other is an article about blogging.

I’m not gonna lie to you, Marge*, I love talking about the stuff I love to do.

I love campaigning. I love blogging. I love blogging about campaigning. I would love to campaign about blogging, if that were even possible.

I hope that you, too, are getting to talk about the things you love to do.*H/T to Wil Wheaton.

C/P on www.Doorbellqueen.blogspot.com

Reverse Robin Hoods

Harold Myerson, writing in the Washington Post on July 28, 2010, noted that a recent report shows that second quarter results for the 175 companies in the Standard and Poor’s Index showed a PROFIT increase of 42.3% and revenue increae of 6.9%.  This happened at the  same time we have seen high unemployment, wages reduced and less spending at home.  So why invest in America when you can get cheap labor overseas and sell your products there instead? We all agree that we have a debt that needs to be reduced so why don’t we want to keep the tax on the top 2% of Americans who are beneficiaries of these profits? The argument is that they (The rich folks)  will create jobs if we keep the tax off of them-really??  Why haven’t they done so since they have all these profits in their pockets?  Also why did we do away with the Estate tax?  This took  money from the treasury and  only benefited the upper, upper class.  In the meantime our treasury is not provided with sorely needed revenue.  So the rich are not paying their fair share and instead of taking FROM the rich and giving to the poor ala Robin Hood, we are soaking the poor/middle class and giving to the rich! As Glenn Beck would say, “anyone else see this”?????  

‘Tis the season for cheap political grandstanding

Readers who get their news online may have missed some new information about the Courthouse displays/public forum controversy in the print version of the Leesburg Today article. This information came to light on Tuesday, after they had posted the online version but before they went to press. I don’t know why Leesburg Today didn’t update the online article.

Many of the speakers demanding to know “why Christmas is being banned” [sic] also wanted to know, after the board had established a policy last December, “why this is being brought up again.” One could feel the outrage that they were being dragged down to the board room, away from their family dinners and whatnot, to give the very same testimony again. Well, we are now reminded of the answer to that question.

Several residents wondered why they had to come before the Board of Supervisors again, when the issue had been dealt with before the holidays last year. Tuesday, Vice Chairman Susan Klimek Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) addressed that question head on, pointing out that the staff report shows that Delgaudio made an amendment to the board’s December motion requiring the Courthouse Grounds and Facilities Committee to return to the full board with any of its recommendations. This issue was brought forward by the committee earlier this month and referred to Tuesday’s meeting for action.

“There’s your explanation. The courthouse committee has made a recommendation. This board voted that those recommendations should come before this body,” Buckley said, adding that board members “should remember that fact” when discussing the issue of the displays.

There you have it: Mr. Delgaudio issued an overwrought plea to his followers, exhorting them to sacrifice their personal time for this “urgent” issue… that he himself had made sure would come before the board for the purpose of just such an event. This was a spectacle due entirely to his own orchestration. Gosh, does it sound like an election year might be around the corner? This is masterful political manipulation, because the people being used as props are actually angry with everyone but the politician who is using them. If I found this sort of thing remotely palatable, I might say “Well done,” but in fact I find the cynical disregard for his constituents and others used in this way too nauseating for words.

There is another irony to note, also the product of Mr. Delgaudio’s overactive propaganda mill: The Courthouse Grounds and Facilities Committee has been made the target of wrath and accused of declaring a “war on Christmas,” but did not in fact do anything to interfere with Christmas displays. In the span of years during which there were only Christmas displays on the courthouse grounds, the committee made no recommendation to prohibit them. It was only after other types of displays became a reality that the committee recommended a ban. While those who cherish the idea of a public forum open to all and free from viewpoint discrimination might take exception to this, those who are only concerned about the right to express Christian beliefs should not.

Although I disagree with their goals, the latter group certainly has a lot to be angry about. If they took a good hard look at the facts, maybe they would notice how that anger has been misdirected and used.

Jumping to Fox News signals

EJ Dionne hit the nail on the head in the July 26 edition of Washington Post when he wrote: “The mainstream media and the Obama administration must stop cowering before a right wing that has persistently forced its propaganda to be accepted as news by convincing traditional journalists that “fairness” requires treating extremist rants as “one side of the story.” And there can be no more shilly-shallying about the fact that racial backlash politics is becoming an important component of the campaign against President Obama and against progressives in this year’s election.

The administration’s response to the doctored video pushed by right-wing hit man Andrew Breitbart was shameful. The obsession with “protecting” the president turned out to be the least protective approach of all.

The Obama team did not question, let alone challenge, the video. Instead, it assumed that whatever narrative Fox News might create mattered more than anything else, including the possible innocence of a human being outside the president’s inner circle.

Obama complained on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “jumped the gun, partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on YouTube or a blog and everybody scrambles.” But it’s his own apparatus that turned “this media culture” into a false god.

Yet the Obama team was reacting to a reality: the bludgeoning of mainstream journalism into looking timorously over its right shoulder and believing that “balance” demands taking seriously whatever sludge the far right is pumping into the political waters.

This goes way back. Al Gore never actually said he “invented the Internet,” but you could be forgiven for not knowing this because the mainstream media kept reporting he had.

There were no “death panels” in the Democratic health-care bills. But this false charge got so much coverage that an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll last August found that 45 percent of Americans thought the reform proposals would likely allow “the government to make decisions about when to stop providing medical care to the elderly.” That was the summer when support for reform was dropping precipitously. A straight-out lie influenced the course of one of our most important debates.

The traditional media are so petrified of being called “liberal” that they are prepared to allow the Breitbarts of the world to become their assignment editors. Mainstream journalists regularly criticize themselves for not jumping fast enough or high enough when the Fox crowd demands coverage of one of their attack lines.”

We have ALL been suckeered into the 24/7 news cycle that demands instant gratification.  WE jumped to conclusions based on a doctored item where a thoughtful lady explained how she came to understand that she needed to re-think the way she looked at things.  Shirley Sherrod was portrayed as a “reverse racist”  and slammed by Fox (Faux) news who even got the NAACP and the POTUS to condemn her on EDITED material. O’Reilley of Fox issued and “apology” after this came out but still says she is unfit to serve in the federal government—POPPYCOCK!  She should accept the new job offered to her and sue the a– off of  Brietbart, teh person who put this trash out there.

Let us ALL learn a lesson and the next time something comes out that does not seem right, check it out (SNOPES.COM anyone?, take a deep breath before responding.  We have two ears and one mouth because we need to listen twice as hard as we speak!!!

 

Links We’re Reading – July 21-25 2010

Link, or drink. Link, or drink? Link.

Sign This, Send That 8

As the summer goes along, there is more to do, and advocacy does not rest. Today, we should put Elizabeth Warren on the Consumer Financial Protection Board and support the DREAM Act, among other things.

  • We need Elizabeth Warren at the CFPB! – Thanks to the perseverance of our Democratic Congress, we actually got Wall Street reform this month. In that act was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Elizabeth Warren should be on it.
  • Let Students Earn Citizenship – The DREAM Act lets kids who were brought into this country without documentation by their parents earn U.S. citizenship the same way all of our forebears did. Sign the petition to get this Act passed.
  • Don’t Appeal the DOMA Decision – A court in New England took exception to the Defense of Marriage Act on equality grounds. If the Obama Administration does not appeal that decision, it will be a great step forward for marriage equality.

Jeff Barnett Town Hall Schedule

From the Jeff Barnett for Congress campaign headquarters:

Barnett Campaign Will Hold Ten Town Hall Meetings

McLean, VA — Jeff Barnett, Democratic Nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 10th District, announced that he will hold ten town hall meetings across the District.

“Frank Wolf has agreed to one debate and one forum, but that’s not nearly enough. That’s why I’m putting together ten town hall meetings. 10th District residents deserve the opportunity to question their candidates on the issues they are most concerned about and to hear opposing views” said Jeff Barnett. “It’s disappointing that Frank Wolf is ducking the tough issues by refusing to debate me in more than once place, but these town hall meetings will allow voters to hear from at least one of their candidates directly,” Barnett continued. “I look forward to an open exchange of ideas about our future.”  The schedule of town hall meetings is as follows

Chantilly: Monday, August 9 from 7:00-8:30PM at Chantilly Regional Library

McLean: Wednesday, August 11 from 7:00-8:30 at McLean Community Center

Manassas Park: Monday, August 16 from 7:00-8:30 at the Manassas Park Government Center

Great Falls: Tuesday, August 17 from 7:00-8:30 at Great Falls Library

Ashburn: Tuesday, August 24 from 7:00-8:30 at Ashburn Library

Leesburg: Wednesday, August 25 from 7:00-8:30 at Thomas Balch Library

Front Royal: Thursday, August 26 from 7:00-8:30 at Samuels Library

Winchester: Monday, August 30 from 7:00-8:30 at the Public Safety Building on Coverstone Drive

Warrenton: Wednesday, September 1 from 7:00-8:30 at the Warrenton-Fauquier Visitors Center

Herndon: Thursday, September 2 from 7:00-8:30 at the Herndon Fortnightly Library

“There is a stark contrast between the two candidates in this race,” said Marc Abanto, Jeff Barnett’s Campaign Manager. “Unlike his opponent, Jeff Barnett embraces the challenge of debating policy proposals. He is more than willing to talk to voters across the political spectrum. These town hall meetings will demonstrate Jeff’s command of the issues and prove the strength of Jeff’s approach to addressing the problems of the 10th District and of our nation.”