Public input session - Tuesday, September 7, 7:00 pm
1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg.
You can call in advance to sign up at 703.777.0204 or 703.771.5072.
The folks who insist that the First Amendment allows them to display "traditional" religious symbols on the courthouse lawn are planning a repeat of the heated public input session of last holiday season. So, I suppose, are the equally insistent anti-display advocates, who have already snapped up at least three of the ten currently permitted display sites.
I think the inclination among progressive people is to not give too much attention to stunts and manufactured controversies like this. It doesn't seem like something that should be taken seriously. There comes a point, though, at which our silence is perceived as consent. A situation in which book burnings and violence occur has reached that point, and our local controversy is developing in the context of such a national climate. A local blogger has been maintaining an online petition demanding that our government exclusively "Keep Christmas in Leesburg," and here are a couple of the more disturbing comments that accompany the signatures:
I do not like the smell of curry therefor if we are unable to have a Christmas Tree and a Nativity Scene then get rid of your curry!
Freedom of religion is a right of every citizen this is not the middle east. If a nativity scene or christmas tree offends you, go home.
Notice how the facts don't matter, as if people of other faiths and cultures are the ones responsible for the issue being on the agenda. This is a poisonous atmosphere, and it's being encouraged by those politicians who do better at the polls when their constituencies are motivated by fear and loathing of the "other."
Bryan Fischer, in his continuing effort to rid the "American Family Association" of any remaining shreds of legitimacy, has been making some rather astonishing statements. Exhibit A might be his recent assertion that, because they failed to convert all Muslim Iraqis to Christianity, the 4,403 US servicemembers who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom died for nothing. For no reason other than the constitution of Iraq as an Islamic Republic, Fischer calls the conflict "a tragic waste of American blood and American treasure."
Here he is again, having a hissy fit because a high school football team in Dearborn, Michigan has altered its practice schedule to accommodate the religious practices of Muslim students (who are the majority on the team) during the month of Ramadan. Evidently, the Apocalypse is nigh:
"Tolerance" is one of those mealy-mouth words that gets tossed around, often, it seems, as a strategy for avoiding something that really needs to be said. Let's just be clear: Some things should never be tolerated. The reckless endangerment of children is one of them.
We pointed it out here in the context of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors action adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the County's employment nondiscrimination policy, but in light of the ruling that found Prop 8 unconstitutional, it's even more striking:
"The Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits discrimination without a rational basis against any class of persons. Discrimination based on factors such as one's sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution."
These words were issued by Governor Bob McDonnell in an executive directive in March, an effort to put out the fire started by his intemperate, activist Attorney General.
This may well be premature, but the award for Best Subject Line in the category Histrionic Email Blast in the wake of the grand-slam Prop 8 victory (ruling here) goes to Brian S. Brown of NOM:
"Federal Judge Rules Marriage Unconstitutional!"
I say this as kindly as is humanly possible: Brian, you idiot. Marriage is not unconstitutional. What is unconstitutional is your demand that our civil government define marriage in the same strained, narrow, unrealistic, exclusionary way that you do.
Readers who get their news online may have missed some new information about the Courthouse displays/public forum controversy in the print version of the Leesburg Today article. This information came to light on Tuesday, after they had posted the online version but before they went to press. I don't know why Leesburg Today didn't update the online article.
Many of the speakers demanding to know "why Christmas is being banned" [sic] also wanted to know, after the board had established a policy last December, "why this is being brought up again." One could feel the outrage that they were being dragged down to the board room, away from their family dinners and whatnot, to give the very same testimony again. Well, we are now reminded of the answer to that question.
As my able colleague tells us, over 40 Loudoun projects are being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - and he names a few of them here. One Loudoun recipient that he discovered but did not name is this one, awarded the amount of $1,800 for the purpose of "reviewing applications": Patrick J. Nolan, resident of Leesburg and Vice President of...wait for it...Prison Fellowship Ministries.
"At some point -- maybe only once in their life -- everyone agrees with the ACLU," Kent Willis, director of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU told the Washington Post.
Because at some point, each of us will manage to offend someone else with our freedom of expression, and the ACLU will be there to remind that person that there is no Constitutional right to not be offended. As a general rule, it's the right to express "unpopular" views that needs a Constitution to defend it, but it's good to have an occasional reminder that the principle applies across the board.*
In her acceptance speech when receiving her recent Chesapeake Climate Action Network award, Supervisor Andrea McGimsey said this: "Just start wherever you are, and DO something."
So we did. We had rented a skid loader for another project, and while we had it onsite we also built a bio-swale to better manage the flow of rainwater through our yard. "Swale" is a term that's being used a lot in the ongoing kerfuffle over the Chesapeake Bay Protection Act and its application in Loudoun, so let's start by clarifying what one is. Although we have seen the terms used as if they are interchangeable, a swale is not the same thing as a drainage ditch. Drainage ditches are what VDOT installs along the roads; their purpose is to direct water off the road surface and then down grade parallel to the road, into some larger conduit, and eventually into the bay. The purpose of such drainage ditches in residential developments appears to be getting the water away from the property as quickly as possible, before it gets anything wet.
Allowing gay men and lesbians to marry would "be a victory for the worthy ideas of tolerance and inclusion...[and] a victory for, and another key expansion of, the American idea," and it would also "likely be accompanied by a wide-ranging and potentially valuable national discussion of marriage's benefits, status and future."
Also, marriage equality "would probably reduce the proportion of homosexuals who marry persons of the opposite sex and, thus, would likely reduce instances of marital unhappiness and divorce."
So testified a key expert witness in the Proposition 8 trial.
You are probably assuming that this was a witness for the plaintiffs suing to overturn Prop 8. If so, you are wrong. This is the testimony under cross examination of David Blankenhorn, witness for the proponents of Prop 8.
The closing arguments are today, and are being live-blogged at prop8trialtracker.com
This explains a lot - such as people who simultaneously demand lower taxes and more and wider roads, those who proclaim that "now is not the time" to take steps to protect our perennial streams (which is sort of like saying "now is not the time to begin treatment for your cancer"), and those who insist that their religious freedom has been stolen from them when they are prevented from interfering with the religious expression of others.
I suppose it's comforting, in a way, that this is nothing new.
As if there weren't already enough reasons to question the activities of Prison Fellowship Ministries, why would some guy from Alexandria named "Donny Ferguson" - instead of, say, a representative from the organization's Lansdowne headquarters - be writing letters in its defense to our local newspapers? Oh yeah; Ferguson used to be Eugene Delgaudio's aide - an interesting association he failed to disclose in his letter. Ferguson also misrepresents the facts in at least two significant ways, a subject we'll return to later - but one has to begin by wondering why he would be so interested in protecting this recipient of a hefty Loudoun tax exemption from criticism.
The previous post Prisoner reentry initiative: Beware of manipulated data described how Prison Fellowship Ministries and its political allies in the Bush administration grossly misrepresented the success of Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative in order to justify government endorsement and public funding of the program, and suggested keeping a close eye on Governor McDonnell's recently announced "prisoner reentry initiative." I cited criminology researcher Dan Mears, who singled out the InnerChange program for criticism, reporting that the real data actually show a higher recidivism rate in comparison to control groups. Mears further questions, "particularly where some degree of coercion is possible, the appropriateness of using any taxpayer dollars for religious programming."
This is an interesting one from Chuck Colson (of Prison Fellowship Ministries; read more about them here). In case you're not aware, PFM operates a tax-free multi-million dollar headquarters located in Ashburn, and founder Chuck Colson produces both a daily radio and email commentary, broadcast nationwide. His topics rarely have anything to do with ministering to prisoners; rather, they represent salvos in the Republican/Christian nationalist-manufactured "culture war," and reliably telegraph the talking points we can expect to hear from the rest of the Republican noise machine on any given issue.
Today's commentary concerns the coming repeal of the disastrous "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
The Loudoun Times-Mirror this week published a very peculiar interview with Eugene Delgaudio. The first thing that jumps out at you is the incompetence. There is video, from which the reporters (the task required two of them) extracted the most coherent parts for inclusion in the story:
Q: What do you say to the statement that Kincora would force the county to take on a huge amount of debt?
A: I think that the debt issue is false because for a long time we have had a companion debt that no one has heard about. No one in Loudoun has ever once mentioned, factually, the [Community Development Authority] debt from Dulles Town Center. The facts are staff is playing to the ideological liberal elite that is statist in nature and anti-prosperity and essentially wants to enslave the 80 percent that pay the residential taxes. So the residents of Loudoun will see economic slavery forever if they're fearful of a debt that doesn't exist.
Keep in mind, this would be the part of the answer to question 3 that made the most sense. The debt "doesn't exist"? I bet the county administrator and the rest of the board will be happy to hear that.
This answer isn't even the most damning example. The rest of the interview is very much like this; incoherent denials of reality, devoid of serious policy content, studded with self-promotion and ideological buzzwords. See if you can make any sense of this one:
Q: Your concern regarding the immigrant community seems to be rooted on crime issues. What is your objection to the gay community?
A: Similar. It's in their best interest that there not be federal legislation marking them. As a supervisor, we passed a law that no one understands and how can they implement it?
I'm curious: What race would you expect a person to be if that person recorded their race as "American" on their census form?
I ask because there is a Loudoun County blogger who recently invited readers to share their stories of "close encounters with the census." I'm not going to link to this person, because 1) the political portion of her blog is nothing but an outlet for anti-Obama and anti-government paranoia, devoid of any reputable source material, and 2) it upsets her. Instead, I will link to this parody.
Here is the comment she used to illustrate, without a trace of irony, the sort of story she was looking for:
I filled in our census form and mailed it in. I made sure to put "American" for the race of all in my family. We got a call over the weekend to "verify that the information is correct". My husband ruined my good fun because he was asked if anyone was black or latino and he says "No" and then the person asked "so you're white" and my husband responds "yes". ugg... I wish I had answered the phone.
A bunch of other people then chimed in, saying they had put down "American" as their race, too.
I want to be clear from the jump that the following is so far nothing but hearsay. According to this Blue Virginia post left in one of our Linkalicious lists, some Republican activists who claim to have been at a recent gathering report that former delegate Dick "plastic fetus" Black has been "gladhanding" and talking about a 2011 run for the 33rd District Senate seat occupied by Mark Herring. Unless and until there is an announcement from a reputable source, this must be regarded as merely the bloggy gossip it is.
I do note, however: Given the current leadership of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, which even prominent GOP activists refer to as "wingers" and "Jesus nuts" (the latter seems terribly unfair to Jesus; my far more accurate suggestion would be "Farrisees"), the likelihood of primary support for Mr. Black is high, were he actually to run.
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post Virginia Politics blog tells us that Governor McDonnell is creating a new prisoner reentry initiative:
McDonnell signed an executive order establishing a Prisoner Reentry Council, headed by [Marla] Decker and the state's first prisoner reentry coordinator Banci Tewolde. Membership will also include representatives of 16 government agencies. The group has been asked to come up with a blueprint for its work on July 1 and a new strategy by Dec. 31.
The initiative is "designed to help Virginia attack a recividism rate that now stands at 29 percent." According to a Catholic Eye article on evaluating reentry programs from just last month, the national recidivism rate is 60-70 percent - so that rate seems remarkably low to begin with. It will be important to carefully evaluate the Virginia plan. The article cites the criteria for such an evaluation, noting that there are many claims of successful programs but very little rigorous evaluation or data that supports those claims.
Naturally, it has to do with those peas in an odd pod Dick Black and Ken Cuccinelli. In case you've been under a rock:
George Rekers, who had made a lucrative career of anti-gay activism until discovered returning from a European vacation with a lovely young man he found on rentboy.com, was paid $120,000 in Florida taxpayers' money to "deliver expert academic opinions" in support of the Florida law (since found unconstitutional) that prohibited gay people from adopting. What did the Florida attorney general who hired him (who now says Rekers "was the best available at the time") get for that sum? From the resulting court ruling:
Dr. Rekers' testimony was far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers' beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.
Previously, Rekers had provided "expert testimony" in a similar Arkansas case. Arkansas judges found his testimony "pointless" and "worthless as evidence because it was only his personal view."
