Our Pres, wants to end DADT but our VA Senators are against it. (surveys show that 75% of Americans are in favor of ending DADT. As a retired LTC myself I know that there are gays and lesbians serving in the military now as they have been for the 20 years I wore the uniform, so what is the issue?)

Our pres. wants to put Defense dollars where they will do the most good and wants to follow SEC Def’s suggestions but our two Dem Senators are against closing the no longer needed base in Norfolk VA. that the Sec Def wants to close.

This is part of the reason why I am frustrated.  I also want everyone to know that I do not consider what I am doing as “in-fighting”, I prefer to call it “soul searching and reflection”. For example, why did our base stay home in this past election????

Our house of Rep.. under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi has passed many good pieces of legislation that were stymied in the Senate so we need to get the rules changed so that veto-proof voters are not needed for EVERY piece of legislation and we need to get a true “Campaign finance” law in place . For example, Citizens United can now donate MILLIONS without disclosing where the money came from.  However, as was noted to day by Rep. Bill Pascell (D) NJ., we did not do enough to work on JOBS!

I agree with E.J. Dionne, jr. who wrote in the 15 November issue of the Washington Post that the “lame duck” “congress has an opportunity to “test whether Democrats have spines made of Playdough and whether President Obama has decided to pretend that capitulation is conciliation”

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)

I was away from the DC area for one week in Colorado and it was a  strange feeling since I did not have access to a newspaper and only watched sports and movies on tv.  However, I could gauge the mood of the people by reading bumper stickers. “Guns ,God  and Life” was the one that attracted my attention.  Now I am back in the DC area and the “birthers” are still at it, and no Mosque in my backyard is in the news, money is needed by every politician, our President is too involved in something or not involved enough; depending on the day of the week, freedom of religion and speech are both freedoms but it seems that freedom of speech is the only one we really believe in and some are making the argument that the tax cuts for the rich should stay in place. I am also disapointed that some Dems are acting like “politicians ” again and forgetting that they are in DC to SERVE the public, not take from the public.  

Thom Hartmann says it all in his blog

Thom’s blog

President Obama Caves In…

At an annual dinner in the White House State Dining Room celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, President Obama said, “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” weighing in for the first time on a the Cordoba House controversy in New York City. He added, “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he said. “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.” Mr. Gingrich said that the proposed Cordoba community center would be a symbol of Muslim “triumphalism” and that building it near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust museum.” CNN news performer Erick Erickson later in twitter compared it to America supporting “human sacrifice” by the Church of Satan. If Republicans don’t like separation of Church and State then why don’t they simply propose that we throw out the Bill of Rights that our founders fought and died for. On 9/11 there were Muslims, Jews, Christians and atheists killed as well as other religions. It wasn’t anymore an attack by Islam, then Timothy McVeigh blowing up the Oklahoma federal Building was an attack by Christianity. It wasn’t war, It was a crime, and it’s funders and collaborators should have been hunted down and thrown in jail by international police forces. Then we’d have closure instead of endless war. Sadly, Obama made an “about face” comment this weekend, after essentially caving in to the right wing attacks. Now with Obama’s clarification, N.Y. Congressman Peter King has accused Obama of “trying to have it both ways” on the Cordoba House, and tragically Peter King is right. The big picture here is that President Obama has an opportunity to help heal this nation by sticking to his words of truth Friday night and leading this nation and world towards peace and embrace the Cordoba House. It was an opportunity to revisit the time after 9/11 when George Bush had an opportunity unite this country and instead he declared war<./DIV>

-Thom

Discussing the plight of women kept behind bars without parole for murdering abusive partners, Thom Hartmann says people have been treated as disposable in the US for centuries. Watch him on RT’s “California parole system often dictated by political aspirations” show on 10 August, 2010.

The Daily Stack

Quote: “Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.” — Booker T. Washington.

 (I cleaned up the content a bit, removing the footer items from Thom’s blog -P13)

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”?????  

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 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!!!

 

I was at the special meeting of the Loudoun BOS Monday night, July 12,  when five members of the Board – Scott York, Susan Buckley(DEM), Eugene Delgaudio, Stevens Miller (DEM), and Lori Waters – approved the Kincora application, which includes 1,400 residential units in an area planned as the County’s premier employment center.  I was deeply disappointed, as was Supervisor Jim Burton who sent an email to me that I am quoting from here. Many on the BOS  professed a commitment to stand by the County’s Comprehensive Plan and to understand the fiscal correlation between residential development and higher taxes but voted for this. The public had no opportunity to speak to the Board on the final version of the application, some items which only surfaced on MONDAY, hours before the vote!

In summary, Mr. Burton and my main concerns are:

1. The current glut of office space in the region and in the County and the failure of other local mixed-use developments to flourish do not provide great confidence that this project will succeed.  

2. The proffers, as adopted Monday night, almost force the Board to establish a Community Development Authority (CDA) to finance the necessary road improvements in a meaningful timeframe.  CDA’s are an inherently risky financial bet with implications for the County’s fiscal health.

3. The loss of tax revenue for repayment of the Route 28 Improvement bonds due to the ridiculously low buy-out requirement for residential units. Do we need more housing when there are so many units in being (many for sale) and many more on the books)?

Kelly Burk did her best along with Andrea McGimsey  and Sally Kurtz to stop this but failed.  It is not too late to get this done correctly since their other issues related to this project that will need to be resolved.  Let your Supervisor know that you want this done right and at no cost to taxpayers.

Tony F

·          

I just finished reading Potomac District Supervisor Andrea McGimsey’s letter, “Accolades” in Leesburg Today.  She was responding to earlier letters from folks opposed to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act(CBPA).  Her points were:

1. That the Republican Governor of VA in a letter to Sec. of Energy Chu noted that Loudoun County is only one of two counties in the USA that “serve as beacons at the local government level for …energy planning.”

2. The head of the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce said that “going green, saves green”

3. Loudoun is stacking up awards for many things including Energy Star Schools that saved taxpayers 34 million dollars.

4. The BP spill and resulting impact on the environment makes the case for strong rules to preserve our environment.

So why are some folks against these rules?  They have had their say but some are still twisting the truth. It is now time to move on and stop spreading falsehoods.  Thanks to Supervisor McGimsey for clarifying the issues and for being a champion of the environment.

Just logging in for the first time and look forward to great discussion