Monthly Archives: September 2010

Loudoun Absentee In Person Voting

A friend in Leesburg emailed me to let me know that he would be unavailable to volunteer on Election Day because of work. He isn’t even sure he’s going to be able to vote because of job commitments. No one should be asked to forgo their right to vote in order to put food on the table. (This is why Election Day should be a non-negotiable national holiday, but that’s a different diary entirely.)

Luckily, Loudoun County recognizes that people have lives and commitments, and provides an opportunity for people who may not be able to vote on Election Day to vote early, through Absentee In Person voting at the Board of Elections.

An in-person absentee voter visits an absentee office location to vote. In Loudoun County there are two locations:  the Voter Registration office in Leesburg and the Cascades Senior Center in Sterling. Arriving voters complete the Absentee Ballot Application and provide appropriate identification. The Absentee Ballot Application is processed there and voting takes place on a voting machine just as is done on Election Day.

Absentee in-person voting begins approximately 45 days prior to a general election (30 days for primaries) and ends at 5:00 p.m. on the Saturday before Election Day. – Loudoun County

The process involves going to the Board of Elections and filling out an application for an absentee ballot. They will process the application right there, and then provide you with your ballot and let you vote, immediately.

Follow through the jump for times and locations where you can vote, today!Here are the dates and locations where Absentee In Person voting is available.

Absentee Voting Hours

Extended hours for absentee voting in Leesburg will be offered at 801 Sycolin Road, Suite 102, Leesburg, 20175

November 2, 2010 General Election

         o October 18-22, 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

         o October 25-29, 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

         o Two Saturdays: October 23 and 30, 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m  

Satellite absentee voting will be offered at the Cascades Senior Center, 21060 Whitfield Place, Sterling, 20165.

         o October 18-22, 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

         o October 25-29, 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

         o Two Saturdays: October 23 and 30, 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

Here is a map showing the Board of Elections office, just north of Leesburg Airport on Sycolin Road.


View Larger Map

Reading the labels

High Fructose Corn Syrup — which the corn refiners are trying to get renamed to “corn sugar” — has been in the news a lot lately. I’m not fond of ingesting, or letting my son ingest, things that have been found to contain mercury, so we’re trying to stay away from HFCS. And so we’ve been reading labels. Lots and lots of labels.First on the list to go was factory-produced breads. Believe it or not, most of them contain HFCS. So now we buy what they bake on the premises at Wegmans.

Corn Flakes (yes, plain Corn Flakes!) is no longer welcome in our house due to the pernicious presence. Amazingly, Wegmans Brand Marshmallow Treasures is HFCS-free. I can’t pronounce everything else it contains, but it doesn’t have that.

Cheerios is HFCS-free. Yay Cheerios!

Old Dominion Root Beer has no HFCS. It is made from cane sugar and honey. And it used to be produced locally. I miss Old Dominion, don’t you?

Global Foods Mart has an enormous offering of packaged foods that don’t contain HFCS.

In general, the fresher and less packaged the product, the less likely it will be to contain HFCS. Just read the labels.

Politically Incorrect…But True

Bill Maher, in this linked column, is rude and crude, with attitude, but he knocks it out of the park.

Under Eisenhower, the top tax rate was 91%. Under Nixon, it was 70%. Obama just wants to kick it back to 39 — just three more points for the very rich. Not back to 91, or 70. Three points. And they go insane.

That’s the tame stuff.

Links We’re Reading – September 20-25, 2010

The missing links have returned! Or been found. Anyone watch that Futurama where Professor Farnsworth keeps finding the missing link, but the chimp professor keeps questioning it? It’s like that.

If the Recovery Act failed to stimulate Americans’ confidence, it’s because it replaced more things than it built. It filled the crater left by the financial crisis. By and large, it succeeded. But its success has been nearly invisible. After all, a filled hole looks like nothing at all. – The Atlantic

Leesburg Bypass Woes

Ft. Evans IntersectionEarlier this week, Leesburg Councilmember Dave Butler introduced a resolution to provide pedestrian crosswalks on the Leesburg Bypass. This is in response to the significant danger posed by people crossing the Bypass unsafely, today.

To protect residents that need to cross the Bypass, and to further the goal of increasing bicycle & pedestrian use within the Town, on Monday, Town Councilman Dave Butler will propose installing crosswalks at all four Bypass intersections including Battlefield Parkway, Edwards Ferry Road, Fort Evan’s Road, and Sycolin Road.

“Obviously, Leesburg Town staff will need to investigate cost and feasibility, but this is a critical need for Leesburg and we need to move this forward.  Too many of our residents cross the Bypass to earn a living to survive,” said Councilman Butler.  “We owe it to them to come up with a better solution than just a bus.” – Dave Butler

The best solution for the Bypass is a series of interchanges from Fort Evans Rd. north to Battlefield Parkway, and a flyover at Sycolin Road. These are, in fact, the Town’s plans for the road, but there is no funding for these critical, necessary plans.

The fact that we need to consider pedestrian crosswalks on the Leesburg Bypass is due to the total ineffectiveness of our legislative Republican representation in Richmond and Washington DC. Yes, the mess that is the Leesburg Bypass at rush hour is the fault of Joe May and Frank Wolf. For lack of legislative gumption from our representatives, the Town is forced to consider striping a major throughway in the name of safety.  Both Joe May and Frank Wolf have served as chairmen of their respective chambers’ Transportation Committees at various points over the past decade. Joe May is Chair of the Transportation committee in the Assembly, today! And yet, in spite of these positions of power within a legislative majorities, they ignored the emerging need for a solution on the Leesburg Bypass as the problem was building.

During this past decade, the commonwealth faced its biggest battles over transportation funding and planning, but Joe May and Frank Wolf were conspicuously absent from those important debates. In fact, in 2008 – after the 2007 compromise that yielded the NVTA was declared unconstitutional – Joe May said, “We need money raised in Northern Virginia to be spent in Northern Virginia. It is becoming rapidly apparent that we’re at the point where if we don’t address transportation in Northern Virginia it will start to affect the rest of Virginia.”

That was two years ago and yet Delegate May has done nothing to address that imbalance since then.

Similarly, Frank Wolf’s signature legislative accomplishment of the past five years is the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. A significant portion of this “Journey” is US 15 from Charlottesville to Gettysburg. That means the Leesburg Bypass, here in Mr. Wolf’s district. If ever there were a vehicle for addressing the need for interchanges on the Leesburg Bypass, this was it. And yet, though he had been Chair of the Transportation Committee, and though there was bipartisan support for the bill establishing the Journey, Frank Wolf did nothing for Leesburg when given this golden opportunity.

For the record, by the time the Journey Through Hallowed Ground legislation was finally passed, the need for interchanges on the Bypass was clear. The fact that the longest-serving member of the Virginia delegation to Congress could not secure at least some part of $35 million to make his precious Journey Through Hallowed Ground actually safe for pedestrians in his own District is laughable.

Both Joe May and Frank Wolf have served for decades in their respective chambers. Both of them have seen to their personal, parochial issues during that extensive period. But both of them have failed, miserably, to address the real, pressing traffic problems of their Districts. Both of them deserve to be sent home. We need to change our representation in Congress and Richmond before anything will be done to solve the problems of the Bypass.

[Update] I was remiss in not mentioning that Sen. Herring has put together a Rt 7 Task Force to look at interchanges on that critical artery.

On Sept. 21, state Sen. Mark Herring (D-eastern Loudoun) told the Times-Mirror he will soon announce the formation of a new community task force with the goal of developing prioritized solutions to alleviate congestion on the Route 7 corridor between the Fairfax and Loudoun line in the east to the town of Leesburg in the west. – The Loudoun Times

Adam from Sen. Herring’s office has confirmed that the Leesburg Bypass was part of the area that the Task Force is going to be examining closely. Once again, Joe May is silent, absent and ineffective. Thankfully Sen. Herring is looking out for us and building a consensus among stakeholders in the County.  

Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t tell

I sent the folowing to DEMOCRATIC Senator Jimm  Webb tonight and hope that all of you reading this blog send a similar message to him.  I served for 20 years in the Army and also spent 15 as a Departemnt of the Army civilian.  I am sure that in these 35 years I served with gays and lesbians. There were never any problems. Also other countries allow gays to serve openly so why can’t we???

Sir,I supported you and met you in Sterling VA once. We spoke about Vietnam.  I just watched Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and she said that tomorrow you were going to vote with the Republicans to block the Defense Authorization bill because of the  amendment to the bill  to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”(DADT).  If this is true I am disappointed.  I was an Army major in Vietnam in 1970 and was the Army’s Casualty reporting officer in Long Binh (USARV). I am sure that some of the names that I reported to the Pentagon were the names of gay soldiers.  They have served honorably and were willing to die for their country so why not let them serve openly? Many former high ranking officers including General Shalikashvili are in favor of repealinig this law.  Our Commander-In-Chief, The Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the JCS both support the repeal of DADT.  Please join them and vote for the Defense Authoriaztion Bill and the repeal of DADT.

Respectfuly,

Anthony V. Fasolo

LTC, USA (ret)

Did you see the great spread on Jeff Barnett in the Washington Post?

In 1996, Air Force Col. Jeffery R. Barnett published a book predicting how wars would be prosecuted in 2010.

Now, Barnett is engaged in an uphill battle far different from the ones he imagined: He is running to unseat Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) in the 10th Congressional District.

Read the rest here!!

My favorite part is where he promises to walk the whole district every two years. That appeals to my canvassing heart.

If you’d like to meet Jeff in person, his schedule is after the jump

Barnett for Congress Public Schedule: September 20 – September 27  

Tuesday, September 21

Jeff attends Back-to-School Night at Chantilly High School

6:30 – 7:30 PM

4201 Stringfellow Rd. Chantilly, VA 20151

Wednesday, September 22

Jeff greets commuters at Dulles North Park-and-Ride

5:30-8:30 AM

Rt. 606 and Rt. 634, next to the Dulles Greenway

Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce: Candidates Night

5:30 – 7:00 PM

Tysons Corner Marriott

1960-A Chain Bridge Rd. McLean, VA 22102

Sully District Council of Citizens’ Associations: Candidates Night

7:30 – 8:30 PM

Sully District Government Center

4900 Stonecroft Blvd. Chantilly, VA 20151

Thursday, September 23

Jeff greets commuters at Leesburg Park-and-Ride

5:30 AM – 8:30 AM

19730 Sycolin Rd. Leesburg, VA 20175

Jeff appears on NTD TV

Broadcast TV Channel 50.3 / Verizon FIOS 482

8:00 – 9:00 PM

Friday, September 24

Jeff appears on The Kojo Nnamdi Show / The Politics Hour

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM 88.5 FM WAMU (National Public Radio)

Saturday, September 25

Jeff attends Dulles Plane Pull

11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Dulles International Airport

Manassas Meet-and-Greet

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

A Taste of Heaven Tea Room

8671 Phoenix Dr. Manassas, VA 20110

Jeff attends Lovettsville Oktoberfest

3:30 – 5:30 PM

Downtown Lovettsville, VA

Monday, September 27

Jeff greets Commuters at Poplar Tree Park-and-Ride

5:30 – 8:30 AM

4718 Stringfellow Rd. Chantilly, VA 20151