Author Archives: Paradox13

About Paradox13

Full time geek, part time suit.

A Trend Of Intolerance

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We are now eight days from Election Day, and the masks are coming off. The true face of the Loudoun Republican Party and it’s candidates is being shown, and it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s downright violent.

Disagree? Then explain the images that Loudoun’s Republican establishment have been circulating to “drum up” support in these waning days.

Item One:


And Item Two:

It really is as simple as the pictures above. There is an organization in Loudoun County whose leaders and candidates believe that images condoning violence towards elected leaders and entire segments of the population is an acceptable, even funny, way to make their case to the voters. And there is an organization whose leaders and candidates believe that true leadership is about uniting, not dividing, our Loudoun Community.

On November 8th, vote Democratic. At some point, we must no longer be silent. We must no longer tolerate hate, bigotry and casual dehumanization as an “odd quirk” of our political establishment. Staying home simply empowers those who spread hate. On November 8, stand up and be among those who say “No more! Loudoun County will no longer be home to this hate!”

Randy Minchew Opposes Birth Control

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You might have heard about Mitt Romney’s kerfuffle with a voter in Iowa over the banning of hormonal birth control (the Pill and its successors). Essentially, policies that declare “life begins at conception” would have the practical upshot of banning the Pill, and hormonal birth control in general. It should be noted that this kind of birth control is a choice made by individuals – and couples – by the millions every day. It is safe, legal, effective and has improved the lives of innumerable people for fifty years.

So, of course, Republicans oppose it.

Here in Loudoun, the LCRC and its candidates want their radical anti-choice (and anti-women) polices declared “off limits” for public debate, or even mention. Indeed, I have no doubt this very post will result in a series of comments accusing me of being sensationalist or stirring up controversy. It is in the nature of these things. But when you ask the right questions, or read the right letters, (and I do mean right letters) you discover that the LCRC’s candidate’s positions on the fifty years of gender equality progress are, in fact, directly in line with the most radically paleolithic candidate they support. Which is why candidates that purport to be “moderate” like Randy Minchew, are in fact no better than Dick Black. They want to take away our daughters’ rights and supplant them with their own paternalistic hooey. In fact, Randy (and candidates like him) are actively campaigning on it.

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Leaving aside for the moment the fact that a blastocyst is not a baby, and calling it a baby is disingenuous at best, the stridency of the language and appeal in this letter is worthy of note and consideration by Loudoun’s voters. Mr. Minchew has positioned himself as a calm, moderate voice, but it is clear from this letter that he is, in truth, anything but. He is as fringey as his Senatorial ticketmate Dick Black when it comes to advocacy on this issue.

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Lying About Crime Statistics

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At the LCDC meeting last night. Ron Speakman came to seek our endorsement for Sheriff. The LCDC declined to endorse anyone for that office this year, as there is no Democrat running.

One assertion that Mr. Speakman made, and is no doubt a core part of his campaign pitch, is that violent crime has increased 46% from 2006 to 2009 as reported by the FBI. This is patently and categorically false. In truth, all crime, including violent crime, has been falling for a decade or more.

Perhaps Mr. Speakman was specifically referring to Virginia, or Northern Virginia. In that case, his statement remains categorically false.

The bottom line is that Mr. Speakman’s campaign for Sheriff is based on stirring up fear and using bald-faced lies to do it. It’s worthwhile for us, as Democrats, to correct such assertions with facts and fear with reason whenever the opportunity presents itself. Reality, after all, has a liberal bias.

Loudoun Government For Sale?

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To date, the real estate community has given over $118,000 to candidates in this year’s local races. That may not seem like a lot, but it is 50% more than any other industry.
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And there can be no doubt that those donations are going to come thick in these last days. In 2003 and 2007, the real estate business spent over 750,000 in each cycle to see their candidates elected. We live with the consequences of the Board that served from 2003 to 2007 every day, in crowded roads, stuffed schools and a crisis of foreclosures and underwater mortgages. Thankfully, the current Board has helped curb the excesses of that period, and introduced rationality and close consideration to the real estate development process.

These donations, however, are of a kind with others to Republican candidates that beg the question of whether Loudoun County’s government, when controlled by Republicans, is for sale?

Witness (Republican-turned-Independent) Sheriff Simpson’s history of benefits provided to his donors.

Or Chairman York’s vote in favor of every development project presented to this Board, and resulting plethora of campaign cash from the industry.

Indeed, some Republican candidates have taken to actually selling their services in return for political donations.

It begs the question of whether Loudoun’s Government will, in fact, be for sale come November 9th, if Republicans are given control. It’s something to think about.

Unenforced Campaign Finance Laws

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I have the nerdish habit of surfing around the Virginia Public Access Project website from time to time. It’s an incredible resource, and completely funded by donations from wonks, politicos and like minded organizations. VPAP publishes campaign finance data that is publicly reported in an interface and format that is a lot friendlier than that which the State Board of Elections makes available.

(And while I’m at it, let me also promote Waldo Jaquith‘s brilliant brainchild Richmond Sunlight.)

Doing some research on VPAP, I discovered some interesting things. Like the fact that Ken Reid’s campaign is fully one-third financed (so far) by real estate interests. Or that some of Scott York’s top donors declined to provide their legally-required occupational data.

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I thought that, perhaps, VPAP just had insufficient information, so I took it upon myself to give the State Board of Elections a call. Talking to the harried, but very helpful staff at the State Board of Elections was extremely illuminating. I was informed that the State Board of Elections, having seen its budget cut quite aggressively during this year’s state budget negotiations, no longer reviews campaign finance disclosures for accuracy. Indeed, when asked what recourse I, as a citizen, might have to get missing occupation information about donors who gave more than $100 (for example) I was told that I really had none.

The entire SBE budget, you see, is focused on the job of planning and executing the August primaries and November elections. And that is as it should be. Administering elections is the primary job of the SBE. Enforcing campaign finance laws is a secondary objective, and when budgets are slashed, secondary goals are often sacrificed in the process. It does beg the question, however, as to how many campaign finance shenanigans are going unnoticed in this unsupervised environment.

It also does a grave disservice to the voters, who have a right to know who is funding campaigns for offices throughout the Commonwealth. I would think that voters in Richmond, for example, might want to know if one or another candidate for School Board is receiving a lot of money from people in the charter school business. That seems, to me, to be a perfectly reasonable criteria for a voter to consider when evaluating his or her choices in November.

Perhaps even more interesting is that, so far, none of the major media who cover the Commonwealth’s elections have noticed these campaign finance discrepancies (even as they notice others) and made the same phone call to the State Board of Elections that I did this week. A local sheriff doing a favor for a major campaign contributor is definitely news, but isn’t the breakdown of the very system of full disclosure that makes such a story even possible a more important tale to be told?

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Business, Development and Supervisor Kelly Burk

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Business and development are not synonyms.

As Loudoun’s 2011 election season heats up, it is worth remembering this simple fact. Many candidates and campaigns will spend the time between now and November trying to conflate the two, though they are quite different. Often, you will see candidates who are in favor of careful consideration of development, what has been termed as “smart growth” in the past, lambasted as being “anti-business” or even “anti-job,” when nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the best way to be pro-business in Loudoun County is often to examine questions of development with an eye towards their economic impacts and benefits. After all, every development application is, by its very nature, a short-term zero-sum game. The decision to use a parcel of land for one purpose necessarily eliminates the option to use to another purpose, at least for the foreseeable future. Loudoun has seen this principle in action over the past decade, with the decision on, and subsequent collapse of, One Loudoun being the most striking example.

You will recall that One Loudoun was supposed to have been an engine of business growth at a perfect, unique location. In fact, it was billed as a centerpiece for economic development in the County. But a funny thing happened on the way to paradise, One Loudoun’s developers went bankrupt, and the residents of Loudoun have gained nothing in terms of revenue, job growth or economic development from that once-paragon project.

This is why all questions of development must be examined closely, and with a critical eye. Development, by necessity, means permanence. And the costs and risks of a wrong decision echo through the county for decades.

Leesburg’s own Supervisor, Kelly Burk, is the Chair of the Transportation and Land Use Committee on the Board of Supervisors. She takes this job as Supervisor very seriously. When making a decision for the County, she considers not just the short-term, but also the long-term impacts of that decision. This is true for everything she does, from budgets to zoning to, yes, development decisions.

Witness, for example, the process that the Loudoun Hounds baseball stadium went through for approval. Supervisor Burk was at the center of that process, working with all stakeholders and eventually forging a compromise that allowed baseball to come to Loudoun while preserving critical habitats for endangered species and ensuring the benefits of the project, including much needed transportation improvements, accrued to the residents of Loudoun. The successful approval of the Stadium was the result of Supervisor Burk’s efforts, and in the end, Supervisor Burk voted “yes” because she found a willing partner in the Stadium’s development team.

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Kelly Burk has made a career of working with local business communities in Leesburg and throughout Loudoun to create sustainable conditions for business, and job, growth. During her terms on both the Town Council and the Board of Supervisors, Ms. Burk has worked tirelessly to improve the business conditions at the Leesburg Airport, and has been widely recognized for those efforts by Republicans and Democrats alike. Unlike this piece of land, or that piece of land, the Leesburg Airport truly is a unique factor in Loudoun’s economic engine. It’s enhancement and protection creates good, long-term, high-paying jobs that return revenues to the County’s coffers and bring business to the County’s companies.

Furthermore, Supervisor Burk has actively, and regularly, put together events to find jobs for her constituents. She has sponsored two annual job fairs (so far) that connect local businesses with young people looking for work. In this, she has directly addressed the single largest portion of Loudoun’s unemployed: young people. No one else in Leesburg, on the Board or on the Council, has pro-actively connected employers with job seekers as a regular part of their elected duties.

All too often, Republicans in Loudoun County equate development with economic growth, when all evidence is to the contrary. Indeed, in the past few years, Loudoun’s growth has come not from development (witness, again One Loudoun), but from the expansion of Loudoun’s existing businesses and the development of new ones. It is this kind of economic development that brings good, long-term, well-paying jobs to Loudoun. Those are the kinds of jobs that improve Loudoun’s revenue and can sustain our success.

Perhaps this is why so many businesses in Leesburg, and throughout Loudoun, trust Supervisor Burk. They come to her with their problems and concerns, and she looks for ways to help. And more often than not, like with the airport and the job fairs, she finds ways to help, and makes them happen. That is putting Leesburg first, and that is the job of a Supervisor.

An Anniversary of Equality

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A few days ago, we celebrated Independence Day, and remembered the document that asserted our Freedom from British tyranny. Today is a less known anniversary, an anniversary of the day that equality was enshrined in our Constitution as a principle on par with liberty. Today is the 143rd anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment. More than any other Amendment to the Constitution (with the exception, of course, of the 13th Amendment) the 14th Amendment has been the Constitutional foundation of America’s progress over the past 100 plus years.

The Library of Congress provides an excellent summary of the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” By directly mentioning the role of the states, the 14th Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans and is cited in more litigation than any other amendment.

The power of the 14th Amendment echoes through the eras, as evidenced by unconstitutional opposition to birthright citizenship for our neighbors with parents from Latin America. It provides the black-letter Constitutional basis for Federal government enforcement of civil rights within the states, much to the chagrin of Texas and, in some cases, Virginia. And it originated that inestimably wonderful phrase, “equal protection of the laws.” Where prior to the 14th Amendment, the equality of citizens under the laws had been assumed, but not truly honored, the 14th Amendment creates and affirmative duty of government to ensure the equality of all under the law.

Ever since its passage conservative interests (first, in the Democratic Party, and later in the Republican Party) have sought to undermine, eviscerate and minimize the 14th Amendment, but it remains a core part of the fundamental law of the land, and the basis of legal equality and progress in the 20th century.

It was the 14th Amendment that made Brown vs. Board possible. It is the 14th Amendment that calls marriage discrimination into real question. It is the 14th Amendment that forms the Constitutional foundation for progressivism in all its modern incarnations.

And so, today, I celebrate the anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment. Ratified, it should be remembered, by Republican states and a Republican Congress. America is better, and stronger, and more just for the 14th Amendment, and I celebrate that today.

75 Years of 40 Hour Weeks

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Today is the 75th Anniversary of the Public Contracts Act of 1936. In the history of America, this is a major event, and one that even today, remains an anathema to conservatives nationwide. That is because the Public Contracts Act of 1936 established the 40-hour work-week in the United States, set minimum ages for workers and even took on a minimum wage.

The Roosevelt-Perkins remedial initiative resulted in the Public Contracts Act of 1936 (Walsh-Healey). The act required most government contractors to adopt an 8-hour day and a 40-hour week, to employ only those over 16 years of age if they were boys or 18 years of age if they were girls, and to pay a “prevailing minimum wage” to be determined by the Secretary of Labor. – U.S. Department of Labor

The Public Contracts act remains the law of the land today.

The significance of June 30th’s bill was the use of the Federal Government’s purchasing power to establish labor standards. It wasn’t about imposing rules on the market by fiat, but rather by using the government’s own purchasing decisions and criteria to lead the market by example. We may recognize this approach in a thousand small things (and big things) done by governments nationwide, today, but it was the Public Contracts Act that began this work as a matter of law.

Today is a keynote anniversary in the history of American progress, and worth noting in some small way.

Utah’s Abandoned History, A Cautionary Tale

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An interesting diary up on DailyKos observes the successful campaign of developers in Utah to eliminate the state’s archeologists and anthropologists so no one would notice when Utah’s heritage and history gets bulldozed.

Rood, along with state archaeologist Kevin Jones and physical anthropologist Derinna Kopp, who also lost their jobs Tuesday, stepped into the view of Gov. Gary Herbert, lawmakers and the Utah Transit Authority in recent years when they raised concerns about a proposed commuter rail station planned in Draper. UTA proposed the train stop and mixed-use development on the footprint of an ancient American Indian village, the earliest known location of corn farming in the Great Basin. – DailyKos

Imagine if someone wanted to bulldoze the oldest known site of tobacco farming in Virginia, and you get the level of significance involved in this story. The entire diary is worth reading for the whole tale of government-official interventions, vulgar namecalling, and abandoned skeletons. I’m not kidding, abandoned human skeletons.

Thankfully, I believe that most developers here in Virginia and Loudoun are a bit more respectful of our archeological history. Indeed, many recent developments have specifically included proffers for preservation of local history, though the actual carry-through on those promises has been hit or miss. That being said, Utah’s experience, in which a developer actually wrote the bill eliminating the positions responsible for conserving Utah’s physical history, can and should serve as a cautionary tale reminding us that we must remain vigilant in the protection of our history.