Tag Archives: Geary Higgins

Jun 01 2012
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Geary Higgins speaks with forked tongue

As noted yesterday, it’s already been entertaining, re the upcoming Metro-to-Loudoun decision, to see how the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors proposes to get out of this one, given the warring constituencies within the local GOP machine on the issue.

The simplest approach for a politician who is cornered, of course, is simply to lie. A hint of what we can expect a lot more of is being provided by Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) who has now suddenly developed a case of raging amnesia regarding his statement of support for the Metro project when he appeared, during the election campaign, at a candidate forum sponsored by the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce (a GOP faction that strongly favors Metro).

Higgins now claims he doesn’t remember ever saying he supported Metro during that event. Continue reading →

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May 10 2012
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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 →

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Apr 23 2012
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Look busy!

Great news for the agoraphobic:

Our fearless Board of Supervisors is (weather permitting) plunging ahead this week with its unfunded chemical assault on the great outdoors. According to a press release from the county (see below), 9 parks will be hosed down with hundreds of gallons of a pesticide called Talstar P, part of the local Republican campaign to pretend to be doing something about Lyme disease.

As reported previously, the local Republican party has for very strange reasons fallen under the spell of a fringe group that goes around spreading scientific misinformation and promoting quack treatments for this tick-borne infection. An essential part of their campaign is to grossly exaggerate the number of cases that occur and to spread hysteria and panic about it.

The Board spent its first three months in office going through minute line items in the county budget to find highly fiscally conservative cost-savings, which culminated in axing a series of $500 or $1,000 grants to arts, literacy, community, and cultural organizations. But when it came to approving $20,000 to spray parks, the Board decided it didn’t even have to include the cost in the budget at all—adopting a resolution stating that the cost “is yet to be determined.”

Apparently when you spend that kind of dough without budgeting for it, you also don’t have to do even the most rudimentary cost-benefit analysis. Continue reading →

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Apr 10 2012
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More Lyme hysteria from the board (better-living-through-chemistry department)

As it has become increasingly and embarrassingly evident that our intrepid Loudoun Board of Supervisors permitted itself to be used by a group of fringe fear-mongers to spread misinformation and pseudoscientific alarmism about Lyme disease, the supervisors have reacted by  . . . digging a deeper hole for themselves.

“Did Loudoun overreact on Lyme disease?” the Washington Post asks in a post on in its local politics blog highlighting realloudoun’s first account of the matter. Continue reading →

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Mar 23 2012
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Amateur hour

SO, a mere 30 years after Federal health authorities identified the cause of Lyme disease and began a complete program of education, monitoring, and prevention, our very own top leading medical authorities here in Loudoun County—I am, of course, referring to newly elected Republican supervisors Professor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin), Dr. Janet Clark MD (R-Blue Ridge), and Herr Doktor Doktor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg)—have swung into action with their own “10 Point Action Plan” to combat this terrible scourge, proclaiming 2012 “Lyme Disease Awareness Year.”

“This has been neglected way too long,” Reid declared in one of a series of self-congratulatory pronouncements he made to fellow board members Continue reading →

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