novatownhall blog

And what they are talking about is not the philosophical kind:

Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.

Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He’s diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.

He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.

He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most “consequential” president ever.

The Wall Street Journal’s steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is “an alien in the White House.”

His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him “anti-business.” Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced “redistribution of income” in history.

Etc. That’s not to mention the sheer incompetence of this administration which has led to things like the BP oil spill – more a result of Obama being a bumbling oaf, i.e. defunding the Coast Guard, than evil intent, but as they say in the movie, stupid is as stupid does. What is the next stupid thing he is going to do, and what will be the result of that one?

As the IBD authors say, “The overgrown, un-pruned power of the presidency to reward, punish and intimidate may now be so overwhelming that his re-election in 2012 is already assured — Chicago-style.” Can we allow that to play out?

Well, thanks to the Drudge Report, everyone now knows that 0bama’s example of why we need to extend unemployment benefits yet again was convicted of prescription drug fraud one month before she was fired. She probably cannot get a job because of her conviction (and was probably fired because of it), which any potential employer can find out by running a simple background check — something Commander inCompetent’s staff failed to do.

But I don’t want to talk about that part of the story.  What I want to talk about is her lament she might have to “[turn] to her father for financial support.”

Holy Leeches, Batman!  This woman has been sponging off me (and everyone else who works for a living) for over a year, and is now in the Rose Garden begging for more of my money, but hasn’t asked her own freakin’ FATHER!!

What the hell is this country coming to?  People are too damned proud to ask their family for money, but they’ll DEMAND it from people they have never met?

There is no way Bush could get away with this, but I’ll bet 0bama does. The left does not care what their politicians do.

According to the Washington Post, 0bama is proposing that the FBI can access your email traffic without a warrant, “if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.”

If they deem the information relevant, Mr. President, they can damn well get a warrant.

Sen. Webb (D-VA) has a rather interesting op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.  In it, he echos Shirley Sherrod’s sentiment that “it’s about poor versus those who have, and not so much about White… and Black.” (I strongly recommend you listen to her entire speech — it’s quite good.)

Now, I don’t agree that it is even about the haves versus the have-nots.  In the case of the farmer that has now made Shirley Sherrod famous, it was not haves vs. have-nots.  In fact, it was the farmer who had, and the depositors who had not.  The farmer had the depositors’ money, and could not pay it back.  Now, I have to ask, if a cobbler had borrowed money to open a shop and could not repay the loan because he could not compete with Nike and Reebok, would we be putting the force of the feral government behind the cobbler or the bank (and its depositors)?   Why are farms different than any other family business?

Anyway, back to Sen. Webb.  His main point is that we have laws that favor minorities over whites, while the original intent was to repair some of the damage done by slavery and Jim Crow laws.  Recent immigrants are included with Blacks in those policies.

Having gone “off the farm,” Sen. Webb has inspired some flaming over at NLS.  If you question affirmative action and racial quotas, you are a racist.

So here is a question for Sen. Webb: After the Republicans take the House and Senate, would you like to come back to the right party?

Financial Reform just passed with 3 GOP votes to take it over the top.  What does more departments with more minorities and women have to do with Financial Reform?  That isn’t even a taste of what is in this new bill that NO ONE has read.  We just found out that Obama waved his magic wand and now Healthcare Reform will include FREE screenings and consultations-without even a co-pay BUT only if you are on the government plan.  What’s next but cap & tax AND immigration reform.  So you say to me “ACT, just be patient.  The elections are coming and we will change all this”.  My ass!  By my recollection, there are still about 6 months before elected officials take office in the new Congress and during that time the Chinese might have already started setting up labor camps because we passed the “Asia Cancel Our Debt For Our Country In Trade Act”.  I find it very difficult to laugh this predicament off.  How will we go about re-establishing sanity, growth, wealth and our Constitutional rights after these massive, invasive bills are passed.  How do we stop Obama from creating more government offices with insane salaries?  I would like someone to tell me I can retire without the government taking everything I own anytime they want to.

These kind of actions started the War for Southern Independence.  Why have the states with balls (are there many?) not recalled their congressional representatives back home as a sign of boycott?  Why hasn’t Va. sued Dodd, Frank, Reed, Pelosi and others (including Obama) for not upholding the Constitution, curcumventing states’ rights and criminal activities which have resulted in the taking of liberty, monies, earned wealth and happiness (and the pursuit thereof) from its citizens?  I don’t owe bank bailouts-that was a lie.  I don’t want someone to not play by the same mortgage rules I do and not be penalized.  I don’t owe ANYONE a free ride and feel that I shouldn’t have to buy someone a ticket.  This is not going to change after the election and it is time to stop this free liberal ride.

You guys hate that issue of secesion.  You want to wait things out and go by the “process”.  Guess what?  That “process” is on the upper shelf in the closet of the White House-not to see the light of day.  If we do it correctly and Obama and Congress do it incorrectly, what is the score so far?  How much money, time  and quality of life will be lost forever while we are trying to stop the hemmorage much less reverse the flow before we get to just break even?  When is it time to keep all your paycheck until tax day; give what you have to your kids now before the gov’t gets it when you die; turn off all news media completely; make a class action suit by STATES to sue personal individuals in the U.S. Government; secede.  Just check other countries around the world and tell me which ones you think we are becoming.  Then understand how they got that way and how long it took.  The government is not corrupting the Constitution-only itself.  The Constitution can be saved but only if these new ideas/laws/mindset are rejected.  How do you go about doing that?  Hope and change in the upcoming elections aren’t going to do it!  Mark my words.

Democrat Stevens Miller, Loudoun County Supervisor from the Dulles District, voted with the 5-4 majority to approve the Kincora Village mixed-use development near the intersection of routes 7 and 28.

The village will include up to 2.7 million square feet of office space, as well as commercial retail, two hotels, a performing arts center and 1,400 multifamily residential units. At least 228 of residential units will be designated as affordable housing.

The board approved a separate application for the 5,500-seat accompanying baseball stadium in July 2009 that will be home to an Atlantic League professional team.

The other Board votes in favor of the project were Republicans Eugene Delgaudio and Lori Waters, Independent Scott York and Democrat Susan Buckley.

There are numerous arguments for and against Kincora, with cogent voices on both sides. I personally think Loudoun County is in a heap of hurt when it comes to business tax revenue and we really need to play catch-up to attract more commercial enterprises into our county, so I think Kincora is necessary to help keep us from going broke. But I understand those concerned about the 1400 residences it includes.

As they say: Reasonable people may disagree.

Supervisor Miller was voted into office with the help of anti-development constituencies who are not so forgiving. Below is an e-mail from Marcia de Garmo, secretary of the Piedmont Environmental Council, sent on July 9, 2010, under the subject heading of “Kincora & Metro – a Major Doublecross by Stevens Miller”

This message from Stevens Miller, one of our endorsed candidates, whom VLF helped with over $16,000 worth of mailings and other types of help — not to mention blood, sweat and tears in phonebank help — is MADDENING. His “transit link” is an example of “lipstick on a pig!” I’m sure you find it frustrating and disheartening as well. However, do send an e-mail. I’m told they don’t see/read the messages that go to bos, so send them to the individual addresses.*

To me this message shows that Stevens has been going into contortions to find a way to support this project. Furthermore;

1) It appears that this wonderful shuttle would link TWO projects that have not been approved! Foxgate is apparently not approved, and Kincora not either (till Monday).

2) If this Kincora developer gets the approval and flips the property (totally totally likely), the proffers (ALL the promises they’ve made, including this one) can be and will be renegotiated and can/will go away. It’s happened time and time again over the years – and all the Boards have fallen for it.

Exerpts from SM, with comments by me!

“I expect that the final proffers will be sufficient in my mind to justify??? bringing this mixed-use project into our community,” are we looking to find some sort of reason to “justify” voting for a bad project?

” to provide more businesses and commercial amenities to our Route 28 corridor,” TRUTH: 28 corridor has 18 MILLION Sq Ft of commercial ALREADY APPROVED but not built!!! 9 million built, of which 3 million are empty! The Fairfax portion of 28 has another TWENTY MILLION sf actually built, but empty!!!

“and even a modest residential component of a type that I believe Loudoun still needs.” HUH?? with +/- 40,000 approved but unbuilt units in eastern Loudoun? not to mention many that are built but unsold, by developers or individuals? with 18,000 of those being “multi-family” as is envisioned in Kincora?

If so, my hope will be that this decision will also send the message to the region’s businessfolk that Loudoun is the right place for them to bring more projects that will help diversify our tax base and grow our local economy. Do we need more PROJECTS to grow the economy? We have PROJECTS for the next 100 years!

This is a Pro-Developer vote – not a pro-business vote. There IS a difference.

Leaving aside the insinuation that Supervisor Miller was bought and paid for by the PEC and VLF (Voters for Loudoun’s Future) – so how dare he exercise independent thinking – Ms. de Garmo’s e-mail illustrates the peril public officials face when they attempt to do what every public official is supposed to do once in office, regardless of who paid their freight on the trip in: vote according to their best judgment.

Kudos to Stevens Miller for doing what he thought was the right thing, even if it was the unpopular thing with some of his benefactors.

(And just to head off the potential heads exploding here: I am aware Mr. Miller has made some dumb public statements in the past, especially with regard to advocacy efforts that your humble narrator once spearheaded. I would hardly count Stevens Miller a brother-in-arms, and you will recall we supported Tom Rust in the last election cycle. HOWEVER, when it comes to dumb public statements, we have all made a few, have we not? …. in the heat of battle, and all that? I have had a couple conversations with Stevens Miller and he is not a stupid man, and if we could tear down the ideological edifices arisen from past battles we might be side to side on some issues. Anyway, I respect his vote on Kincora, and I hope you do also.)