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Last spring, in an effort to score some quick points with the Lyme disease loonies in the local Republican Party (notably our very our own right-wing religious fundamentalist, anti-evolutionist, Christian triumphalist, and Lyme loonie extraordinaire Michael Farris), our all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors ordered up $10,000 worth of toxic chemical pesticides sprayed on hundreds of acres of county parks. More than 95 percent of the area sprayed was open fields, exactly where you’re not supposed to spray for ticks according to all the experts (since that is not where ticks are found — but it is where honeybees forage).

Moreover, since the available scientific evidence shows that (a) most people who are infected with Lyme disease from a tick bite are exposed in their own yards (b) spraying is ineffective in preventing Lyme disease transmission and (c) by far the single most effective measure people can take to protect themselves is simply to use insect repellent when outdoors and check themselves for ticks — it was clear that this was not only an environmentally destructive, financially irresponsible, politically motivated, and hastily conceived public-relations stunt, but was completely useless as well.

Still, you might think — if you didn’t know our all-Republican Board of Supervisors, that is — that there was some evaluation, analysis, scientific expertise, or even minimal brain activity that went into the selection of the particular parks to be hit with this chemical assault. Continue reading →

In a further development in Supervisor Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn)’s extremely subtle explanation for why he voted to oppose the tax rate that his own budget produced, then abstained on a re-vote, then voted for it on a second re-vote two weeks later, Serious Businessman Buona wants to make clear that even though he might have seemed thereby to have abandoned his original hypocritical stance against the tax rate, the fact that he finally voted for it does not mean he is for it.

As Leesburg Today “explained”:

During the April 3 meeting, Buona had to change his vote from no to an abstention so that a majority of supervisors present would be in support of the tax rate. At that time, he said he had put “too much blood and sweat” in the budget to see it go down without a tax rate, but said he felt more work could have been done to lower the rate. Despite an affirmative vote Wednesday, he still holds that position.

In other words, our esteemed supervisor wants everyone to understand that in contradicting his original self-contradictory position, he nonetheless remains committed to his original self-contradictory position, rather than his new self-self-contradictory position.

It’s good to know we have a politician with such strong convictions on all sides of the issue.

As noted previously, Supervisor Ralph “Profiles in Courage” Buona (R-Ashburn) bravely agreed to change his vote against the tax rate required to fund the budget he himself spent three months developing as chairman of the Loudoun Board of Supervisors’ finance committee, and instead abstain so that the tax rate would not be defeated. This allowed him to be able to claim he was still against big bad taxes, but without actually causing the entire budget process to collapse in ignominious chaos.

The tax rate accordingly passed on a 4–3 vote on April 3.

But it turns out it hadn’t passed. Continue reading →

The last time the Loudoun Republican Party tried to save our innocent children from being corrupted by the evils lurking in our local libraries, it cost the county $100,000 defending a lawsuit that it inevitably lost and made us the laughingstock of the country.

But that bit of political theatrics shored up the right-wing wacko religious zealot credentials of one Dick Black, then serving on the Library Board, thereby catapulting him to a rewarding political career in Richmond as a state legislator, where he became the darling of religious wackos everywhere by handing out plastic fetuses to his fellow legislators and decrying the notion of ever prosecuting a husband for rape against his wife since, as he explained on the floor of our great state legislature, if she’s “wearing a nightie” in bed she is asking for it. But we digress.

This lesson in practical politics was not lost on other local aspiring Republican politicians, who are well aware — since the Republicans almost never deign to allow the people to select their candidates in primaries —  that kowtowing to the powerful wacko religious right faction in the party apparatus is a key to career advancement.

So here we go again!

Supervisors Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) and Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles) Continue reading →

Loudoun County’s tourism tax revenues are supposed to be used to promote tourism. But it’s a lot of dough — about $5 million last year — and our all-Republican Board of Supervisors, and its very partisan appointees to various county commissions and boards, have apparently found it to be a tempting slush fund to channel money to favored or politically connected businesses, organizations, and causes.

Among the events approved last month for a “Visit Loudoun Marketing Leverage Fund” grant, to the tune of $3,000 to support marketing and promotion of the event, is the “2013 Awakening Festival.”

This event, operated by something called “Awakening Ministries, Inc.,” turns out to be a “Christian contemporary music” “festival” whose avowed and unambiguous purpose, according to the Awakening Ministries, Inc. own website, is to proselytize:

“Our goal is to introduce Christ through the music, artists and the speakers.”

Perhaps the Board of Supervisors would like to consult the Constitution of the United States regarding this little matter of providing public funds for the direct promotion of a certain religion?