Jul 19 2012
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It’s just not Christmas without a high end marine grade PVC creche

Efficiently getting a mid-July start to their “August Recess,” our very businesslike all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors went out with a bang this week at their Tuesday night business meeting, tying up all kinds of loose ends as they hurried out of town.

Loudoun County Government’s officially approved high end marine grade PVC creche

Actually, some of these hard-working public servants, notably Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) and Chairman Scott York (R), haven’t been in town much lately anyway, judging by how many Board meetings they’ve missed. But when you have a 9–0 majority, showing up and voting just doesn’t seem that pressing a priority I suppose.

The big news Tuesday was the Board’s approval of the meticulously developed new holiday display design for the courthouse lawn. The Courthouse Grounds and Facilities Committee, charged with coming up with the design, helpfully provided the Board a sketch complete with exhaustively researched pictures torn from a religious wares mail-order catalog (example provided here directly from the official Board of Supervisors agenda packet from Tuesday night) showing the type of tasteful displays your government will be providing the taxpayers this year to make up for the tragic inability of citizens to celebrate the holidays on their own.

For a second during the discussion Supervisor Janet Clarke (R-Blue Ridge) threatened to make sense, questioning why the county government was wasting so much time and effort on debating “lawn decorations” and even seemed to be heading towards the suspiciously sensible view that government ought not to be sticking its oar into religious matters at all. But then she clarified that she was merely suggesting that county government ought not be sticking its oar in and that official government religious holiday displays ought to be left to town governments to erect on their property, thereby presumably solving any constitutional questions involved. Continue reading →

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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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