Monthly Archives: July 2012

Jul 16 2012
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Who needs museums when you have the Redskins, sort of

Without batting an eye, our unanimously fiscally highly responsible all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors recently approved handing over $2 million of your tax dollars to the Washington Redskins football team — part of a larger $6.4 million payoff negotiated by highly fiscally responsible free-market champion Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.

Major Loudoun Tourist Attraction: A corporate office building

The deal, it was explained, will ensure that the Redskins keep their corporate HQ in Loudoun for at least a few more years. Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run), a big fan, could hardly contain his excitement about what a coup this was for Loudoun . . . even though, just a minor detail, the team will still be abandoning its training camp in Loudoun next year. But Williams explained that the move of the training camp to Richmond was being made “for football related reasons” and, after all, who are we to question “football related reasons”: it’s not as if handing over a mere $2 million in free money to a large for-profit company entitles us to be that presumptuous.

The money by the way comes from the Transit and Occupancy Tax, and is required by state law to be spent “solely for tourism and travel, marketing of tourism, or initiatives” that increase overnight visitors staying in hotels and motels. Continue reading →

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Jul 12 2012
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Metro Will Bring Sinful Democrats to Loudoun!

Chancellor “Dr.” The Rev. Michael Farris of Patrick Henry Bible “College” in Purcellville, a major force within the Loudoun GOP machine, has offered another explanation for the far-right opposition to Metro that nearly sunk the project in last week’s cliff-hanging 5–4 vote by our unusually non-unanimous Board of Supervisors.

Metro made for some strange political problems for our normally very unanimous supervisors. Continue reading →

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Jul 10 2012
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Some of our best friends get $80 million loans

Still catching up on the exciting developments of a few weeks ago, what could be more exciting than Scott York’s thrillingly titled e-mail special news alert, “Huge Win for Loudoun County.”

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

On closer examination the “Huge Win” turned out to be “Huge Win for Very Close Campaign Supporter and Generous Scott York Contributor.” What Loudoun “won” was an $80 million loan, subsidized by the taxpayers, which will allow the developers of residential/commercial/very minor league baseball utopia Kincora to get out of having to come up with the dough themselves that they promised for road improvements as a condition for getting approval for their development in the first place — in one of the already most congested spots in the county, at the intersection of Rt 28 and Rt 7. Continue reading →

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Jul 05 2012
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Ken “explains” his vote

Not to make this Pick on Ken Reid Week once again, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself given the material.

Yesterday Loudoun Supervisor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) gave perhaps the single most bizarre interview by an elected official ever to appear in Washington Post. In an article charitably titled “Loudoun Supervisor Explains ‘Yes’ Vote on Metro,” Ken “explained” that he can sympathize with how opponents to Metro must feel about his providing the deciding vote in the Board of Supervisors’ 5–4 approval of rail to Dulles this week, since he was opposed to Metro, too (he even had a “No to Metro” sticker on his car) before changing his position at the last minute and voting for it — and thus Ken understands what it’s like to be on the losing side of this issue that he just voted on the other side on:

“I was an activist too. And I know what it means to taste defeat. I was devastated when I was working to stop Dulles rail, and it kept coming. I stopped my activities on Dulles rail because it was getting so frustrating. So I know how they feel…”

You can read the full interview here. I guarantee it won’t make any more sense when you’ve read the whole thing.

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Jul 04 2012
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Metro comic relief

The all-Republican Loudoun supervisors certainly know how to get attention for themselves, don’t they? It only took them six months of very public agonizing to agree to do what the previous board had already agreed to do without all the fuss, and support extending Metro to Dulles Airport and Loudoun.

The very serious high-drama 5–4 last-minute squeak-through victory for Metro yesterday was not without its moments of comic relief, however.

First was the outrage expressed by Hillsboro’s far-right “street theater” activist John Grigsby, incensed that Supervisor Ken “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) would, as Grigsby fumed, betray the wishes of “your largest donor” and vote for the project.

Yes, nothing more outrageous than a politician you’ve bought and paid for who doesn’t stay bought: Continue reading →

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