Monthly Archives: May 2012

May 16 2012
-

Our far flung supervisors

Yes, the payoffs to Loudoun County from the extremely efficient business friendly trip by Chairman Scott York (R-At Large) and friends to our German “sister county” (partnerdistrict) Main-Taunus-Kries just keep pouring in.

First there was the major development of a press release published in no fewer than two local German newspapers declaring “new friendship on the baseball field” between the two districts. And not only friendship, but the promise of “exploring” further cooperation in this rich area.

This cooperation is to take some unspecified form between the Main-Taunus amateur baseball team der Redwings and the extremely minor league, if as yet nonexistent, Loudoun Hounds. The nonexistence of the Hounds is however no reflection on the very real existence of the Hounds’ owner Bob Farren or of the very real $19,219 that he so generously provided York and his fellow all-Republican supervisors to help them get elected last fall, which may have explained his presence on the German junket.

Now we can barely contain our excitement at the news of yet another major accomplishment of York’s far-flung travels: a “live video simulcast” set up last week that allowed Loudoun-based artists and their counterparts in M-T-K to do something or other to mark the opening of an art show, featuring exciting speeches by Loudoun County officials, the high point of which was apparently the chance for Loudoun artists sitting at the certified tick-free Franklin Park Arts Center in Purcellville to hear Loudoun County participating artist and sometime politico Priscilla Godfrey speak to them from the other end of the hookup in Germany, where she had flown just for the occasion.

Of course, maybe she could have stayed home and spoken to Loudoun artists without all this trouble. But never mind. It was very important.

Advertisement
Tagged , ,
May 11 2012
-

Merely incompetent and corrupt

We should probably be happy that our local Republican machine here in Loudoun County is merely incompetent (see: Reid, Ken) and corrupt, rather than completely unhinged.

Some of our neighbors to the south in Greene County, Virginia

For a specimen of the latter, we have our neighbors to the south in Greene County, a region of our state located between Culpeper and Charlottesville, and apparently populated by a disproportionate number of people who like to wear tricorn hats and carry muskets and recite lines from elementary school history pageants about giving ’em liberty or death. (Or sometimes wear even more outré headgear, as depicted in the accompanying photo.) Continue reading →

May 10 2012
-

Read and follow directions!

The only thing conceivably more ridiculous than spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to spray pesticides all over 9 county parks in the hopes it will reduce the incidence of Lyme disease is  . . . to do that and not even follow the application directions on when and where not to spray.

Guess which version of ridiculous our all-Republican Board of Supervisors in Loudoun opted for?

Ignoring recommended procedure (and common sense) to limit spraying to actual tick habitat along wooded edges, the Board had 62 acres of open area in Franklin Park needlessly treated

As noted previously, the Board, falling over itself to pretend to be doing something about Lyme disease, rushed to divert as much as $20,000 of existing funds from the county Parks and Recreation budget to its new tick spraying crusade (particularly fearless supervisor “Ken” Reid, never at a loss for absurdity, boldly promised to “wipe out” ticks in Loudoun County)—but without bothering to ask such niggling questions as whether this was likely to accomplish anything (other than looking busy). Continue reading →

Tagged , , ,
May 09 2012
-

Ken looks to the future

Poor publicity-starved Loudoun Supervisor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) can always be counted on to make a beeline for the Washington Post reporter in the room, and today he was right there following the meeting of the state’s Transportation Secretary with the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce to discuss the Metro extension to Dulles and Loudoun.

By the way, it is apparently now the standard M.O. in Loudoun County that if you want to be a part of high-level discussions about transportation, you need to join the Chamber; this is the second time that the all-Republican cast of  supervisors, since taking office in January, has decided that the fair and open way to have an important meeting in which state officials discuss Loudoun transportation issues is to do it at a Chamber meeting, where you either can pay to attend or be a member. This has nothing to do with all of the help that key Chamber people gave Chairman Scott York (R) in the way of organizing fundraisers, making campaign contributions, being his buddy on an official trip to Germany, etc etc etc.

Anyway, Ken explained to the Post this morning why he is (apparently) going to vote against Metro, offering yet another fine specimen of his keen logical mind at work:

Ken Reid, a Loudoun County supervisor from Leesburg, said he isn’t sure how the Loudoun board will vote on whether to support helping to pay for the second phase of the Silver Line.

He said the new rail line doesn’t relieve traffic congestion in the area because it is expected that there will be more people driving in the future.

Actually, this reasoning offers all sorts of cost-cutting possibilities. We assume Ken will also from now on oppose all road projects, since they too will fail to relieve traffic congestion — since there will be more people driving in the future. Likewise, hiring new teachers will not reduce overcrowding of classrooms since there are expected to be more students in the future; and hiring more deputies will not reduce crime as there are expected to be more criminals in the future.

Tagged ,
May 07 2012
-

Scott York’s road-trip buddy

You’d never know about it from reading our local newspapers (no surprises there—but remember, there’s still time to contribute to the Buy Erika a Phone Campaign), but traveling along with Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York (R) on his recent extremely important official economic development trip to Germany was Major Republican Campaign Donor (and Owner of the Loudoun Hounds Baseball Team at Kincora Development Maybe Someday) Robert “Bob” Farren.

Scott York (rechts) und Bob Farren (links) auf dem Trainingsgelände der Redwings (courtesy Hofheimer-Zeitung)

I should clarify that the presence of Mr. Farren on this trip was reported in some local newspapers; those newspapers just happened to be in Frankfurt, Germany.

The German media made much of York’s and Farren’s visit to the local baseball team, Die Redwings, in Loudoun’s sister county (“partnerdistrict” in German) Main-Taunus and the exciting news that cooperation between these two very semi-professional ballclubs, one of which does not exist yet, will be “explored.”

Who says these trips don’t produce results.

The Hounds, which is owned by Farren’s Virginia Investment Partnership, is not even going to be a real minor league team like the Frederick Keys (Class A farm team for the Orioles) or the Potomac Nationals in Woodbridge (Class A team for the Nationals)—it will have no affiliation with major league baseball at all. Exactly why Continue reading →

← Older posts
Newer posts →