Are You Different

Chris Bowers strikes again with a wonderfully insightful post today entitled "Different People Suck."

People who are different suck. Because Obama likes different stuff, you shouldn't like him. Even though I am a straight white dude from the suburbs who grew up Catholic in the predominantly Catholic northeast, I've been dealing with this shit since about the fifth grade. Even if you are demographically identical to the local plurality or majority, if you don't like the same stuff as everyone else, then you still suck. And while it is certainly not to the same level as what people face for demographic differences, it still goes for your interests in music, food, clothes, television and pretty much any cultural or consumer object you can name. Being different means you are bad, and should be scorned.

This attitude of scorning those who are different has been the primary dividing line in American politics for a long time. It is the basic conservative mantra, and it can be seen quite clearly in voting patterns. - OpenLeft

He gets at a very key insight in the post - a coalition of the non-majority is, in fact, a majority. The Democrats have been and continue to be a coalition of the non-majority. No one single subset of the Democratic party is a majority (or even a good plurality) of America. Even christian white male Democrats (like yours truly) are merely a small minority in the Democratic party (outnumbered by, for example, women).

This pattern isn't surprising in the least. Given that the conservative message is constantly "different people suck," it was pretty much inevitable that all of the different people, even if they are all different from each other, would eventually band together and turn against that message. Functionally, it turns our political discourse into a never-ending replay of what most people experienced since they first entered adolescence: the freaks versus the norms. - Chris Bowers

This has been my experience as well, and I am sure the experience of many of my friends. We're band geeks and nerds. We've only found strength in each other, and had to constantly fight for respect and recognition. Now, the tables are turning as the outcasts can band together to form a new majority, one that will keep America looking forward, rather than backwards. And that's a good thing.

So yeah, I am different, and damn proud of it. I'm a Band geek wannabe engineer Democrat. And I'm coming for your vote.

The Story Of A School

If you get a chance, go read the latest post over at Our Loudoun Shools.

Northwood Middle School in Smyth County serves a very impoverished student population. Six times as many families live below the poverty line as in Loudoun County. Over half of the Middle School's 200 students receive free or reduced-price meals from school, and for many of them, those are the only good meals that they eat. Students frequently come to school on Monday morning and ask for two breakfast servings because they've had little more than soda and chips all weekend. Sports teams competing on the weekend are fed prior to games to ensure that they've eaten that day. - Our Loudoun Schools

Let's consider that for a minute. In the U.S.A. in the 21st century, there are kids who come to school on Monday morning hungry, looking forward to the meals their schools provide. It is easy to say that schools exist to train the next generation, but they do so much more than that. In communities like Saltville, they are the social safety net for the town's kids.

And there are people who would begrudge this school district its funding. There are people who would leave these kids to their own devices when it came to nutrition, even though it has been shown that nutrition and acheivement are linked. There are people who do not realize that Northwood's fight is our fight too.

It is because of places like Northwood Middle School that we fight, that we work the polls, that we work, every day, to make America stronger, together.

McCain's Money For Nothing

John McCain is out of touch with America, and no amount of grocery shopping can fix that. From birth control, to higher education costs to Iraq, he has come down on the side opposing what a majority of Americans know is the right direction for our country.

Smintheus at DailyKos helps illustrate how unlike our lives Sen. McCain's life is.

• $51,345.08 - Senate salary John McCain has 'earned' since he last showed up in the Senate to perform his job on April 9, 2008.


• $48,201.00 - The median household income in the US in 2006.

- DailyKos

Think about that for a minute. If you hadn't showed up for your job since April, you would have been fired. Sen. McCain has made more than the median income of the average American since April, without actually going to work.

Well, back to work for me, and the rest of us, I guess.

Marriage And The Census

What if you were legally married, but the Census Bureau said otherwise?

The U.S. Census Bureau, reacting to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and other mandates, plans to edit the 2010 census responses of same-sex couples who marry legally in California, Massachusetts or any other state. They will be reported as "unmarried partners," rather than married spouses, in census tabulations - a policy that will likely draw the ire of gay rights groups. - The Mercury News

This may not strike the chord it ought to with many, but consider this: Census data is used to determine things like school funding and school population projections in many areas. Shouldn't a married gay couple that is more likely to adopt a child (or make a child using fertility techniques) register when trying to figure out how many kids will be in our schools in five or ten years?

Affordable Housing in Leesburg

A local neighborhood and home builder are teaming up to offer affordable housing just blocks from downtown Leesburg.

Konkel serves as property manager for Leesburg Mobile Park and several months ago reached out to Ken Semler, president of Willow Pond Homes, which produces manufactured homes. Semler is now at work bringing his homes to the mobile park and already has several lots displaying Willow Pond's product.

The two have teamed up to launch the Hometown Heroes Affordable Home Program, which reaches out to community members like police officers, firefighters, nurses and teachers, encouraging them to become homeowners in desirable downtown Leesburg. Semler describes the program as "an affordable housing option for those who otherwise couldn't afford a home." - Leesburg Today

Konkel and Semler should be commended for reaching out to those working in the public sector and offering them a good, local option for a home. That being said, it would be wonderful if similar programs were offered for people working low-wage jobs in Leesburg in the private sector.

Of course, there is the negative connotation that comes with the idea of a "mobile home." I suspect that this connotation creates a damper on demand for quality, reasonably-priced homes among some residents who might otherwise buy rather than rent. It would be very interesting to understand whether this kind of attitude is, in fact, prevalent and widespread and creating a gap in the market between expectations and realities among buyers.

Your Brain On Hope

Here's one of the funniest ads I've seen this cycle.



(With all credit to MyDD.)

The IMF Increases TB

I have always been something of a fan of the IMF. I like the idea of an international organization which helps developing countries prevent the collapse of their economies while creating incentives to keep their fiscal house in order. It seems to me that we all benefit from well-run countries with functioning economies.

One of the critiques of the IMF, however, has been that the "austerity measures" which often come with IMF loans are disproportionately harmful to the citizens of the countries in question. Evidence for this has been anecdotal, until recently.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans were associated with a 16.6% rise in death rates from tuberculosis (TB) in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern European countries between 1992 and 2002, finds a study in PLoS Medicine.
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Between 1992 and 2002, most of the countries studied in this analysis received IMF loans for the first time. As Stuckler and colleagues note, "According to the IMF, the objective of these programs is to achieve macroeconomic stability and economic growth...", yet a recent report from the Center for Global Development has suggested that countries receiving IMF loans may constrain spending on health and social services. For example, countries receiving IMF loans might need to reduce social spending in order to meet the targets set as a condition of the loan, and do so by placing caps on public wage bills or by privatizing healthcare services. However, previously it has not been clear whether IMF loans are actually linked to any changes in measurable health outcomes. - ScienceDaily

Fiscal restraint and economic conservatism in the interest of getting a nation's financial house back in order is one thing, but spreading TB is something else entirely. I believe that the IMF still has an important role to play to prevent economic collapse and dislocation in nations on the verge of sovereign bankruptcy, but this study makes it clear that the IMF will have to coordinate its lending efforts with efforts by its sister organization, the World Bank, to mitigate the worst of the social costs towards which its lending requirements may tend.

The IMF and World Bank should together launch a new initiative to link IMF loans directly with World Bank programs to ensure the preservation and efficacy of healthcare and other critical safety net services in the country at risk. And this should become a standard practice for all future IMF interventions.

Sen. Obama's Tax Plan Impact

In more difficult economic times, everyone gets up in arms about taxes (whether they should or not). So it is useful to examine the relative impacts of the tax plans being proposed by Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain. The Washington Post provides this handy graphic illustrating the difference.

As you can see clearly, Sen. Obama's plan is progressive and balanced, with reasonable cuts for the middle class, help for the more than 60% of taxpayers whose incomes have stagnated relative to inflation and productivity increases in the past ten years. Those who have seen their annual incomes go up the most, at the very, very top of the income scale, will see their taxes increase. However, it must be noted that during the Bush Administration, these taxpayers incomes have gone up much higher than Sen. Obama's tax reform will ask them to pay back for that privilege.

(With a tip-o-the-hat to The Richmond Democrat.)

Sam Rasoul Still Rolling

Virginia's Congressional races are getting a lot of attention of late. Tom Periello has become a darling of the blogosphere for his fight against the backwards Virgil Goode, and Judy Feder has moved her race against Frank Wolf out of "safe Republican" territory. Down in Hampton Roads, Glenn Nye has been gaining attention in his challenge to Karl Rove and George Bush's favorite Virginian, Thelma Drake. And everyone expects the Democrats to pick up the open seat in VA-11 that Tom Davis is leaving.

Meanwhile, down in the 6th District, Sam Rasoul has been working hard, under the radar, to make a difference for his neighbors. Sam is running against Bob Goodlatte, who has held the seat since 1993. This is a reliably Republican district, but Sam Rasoul is the kind of Democrat who has a chance to change its representation. He's a young businessman who has made it a point to knock as many doors as he can (shades of Gary Trauner), and show up at as many events as he can in order to actually meet as many voters as he can and talk to them.

This is the kind of hard work and real voter outreach that makes a difference and changes minds in the long-haul. With his campaign against Bob Goodlatte, Sam is more than fighting for VA-06 in 2008, he's fighting for the Democratic Party in VA-06 in the long-haul. His campaign, for example, has a goal to knock 100,000 doors in a district with fewer than a million voters. That kind of Democratic outreach can make a huge difference in Democratic turnout in November, not to mention 2009 and beyond.

Sam has detailed opinions and plans on a wide range of issues. He is fighting against income inequality, one of the scourges of Virginia's economy. And he has made the case for universal healthcare from a businessman's perspective. These issues resonate in the Valley, and in a year like 2008, with economic insecurity at the top of so many people's minds, Sam's clear thinking on these issues may help him over the top.

There has been very little fanfare for Sam's campaign in the major media, possibly because there has been little to no polling of the race. That does not mean it is not an interesting race to watch. The level of energy and effort being put forth by this unregarded campaign should be commended and considered. In VA-06, Sam Rasoul is still rolling.

A Thought To Ponder

"It's one thing to be distrustful of government. It's another thing to hate government so much that you don't run it well."
- Harrisonburg attorney A. Gene Hart Jr., one of the first crop of candidates for House of Delegates in 2009 [Daily News Record, 7/23/08]

See Where Development Is Going

The Piedmont Environmental Council has introduced a fantastic new online tool which shows where development is going in Loudoun: LocalDecisions.org

(The PEC's LocalDecisions.org site)

The site offers an interactive map of the area, and details all the planned and approved developments coming to Loudoun. You can click on a development to see its status, or run a search to discover that there are no fewer than 126 residential developments already approved in the pipeline. It should be noted that the current Board of Supervisors bears the burden of dealing with these approved developments, which were largely put in place by the previous Board of Supervisors. This is where the oft-repeated "38,000 new homes yet to be built" number comes from. The number actually on the way may vary (other estimates put it at over 41,000), but we cannot deny the impact tens of thousands of new homes will have on our community.

(With a tip-o-the-hat to Redfin.)

Gov. Warner Supports Net Neturality

Just in case you need another reason to vote for Mark Warner in November, he supports Net Neutrality.

Diverse Schools, Tolerant Kids

It turns out that kids who attend diverse primary schools tend to get along better with people of different backgrounds.

For the first time, children as young as 5 have been shown to understand issues regarding integration and separation. The research confirms that the ethnic composition of primary schools has a direct impact on children's attitudes towards those in other ethnic groups and on their ability to get on with their peers.
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Highlighting the challenges faced by immigrant children, the study also showed that those attending schools characterised by higher ethnic diversity experienced fewer peer problems and less prejudice than those attending schools that are more homogeneous. - ScienceDaily

For those who question the value of diversity, there it is, in black and white. Kids who go to more diverse schools are more tolerant and accepting of people with different backgrounds. We as a community should be working to break down the prejudices and assumptions which divide us. Fear of our neighbors and distrust of the differences between us leads to more problems and fewer solutions. We're all part of this County, together, and our kids may know that better than ourselves.

And you know what else? Kids in diverse schools also have higher self-esteem.

"We found that, when the proportion of ethnic minority children in a school is at least 20%, both ethnic minority children and majority children tended to have higher self esteem, children had more friendships with children from other ethnic groups, and there were fewer problems with peer relationships such as bullying". - ScienceDaily

This is something to keep in mind as we consider the future of education and schools in Loudoun County. For more well-adjusted kids, a diversity in their school community is important. For a more integrated County, we need diversity in our schools.

Is Sterling a Suburban Slum?

The Board of Supervisors has made a point of reaching out to eastern Loudoun this year. A wide range of resident concerns, from safety to zoning to foreclosures and overcrowding have been perceived there as overlooked and underserved over the past five years or so. The latest effort to listen to residents was this week in Sterling Park.

The board held the special meeting to present a report on findings from its Potomac/Sterling outreach efforts and to hear from residents.

There, Castellano and others pleaded with the supervisors to give Sterling the money and attention it needs to help solve problems like the high crime rate, spike in foreclosures and influx of immigrants to the area. - The Loudoun Times-Mirror

Many residents of Sterling Park believe that the root cause of their problems is immigration, and the changes in resident population in Sterling Park that have occurred in the past decade or so.

"Community change" was also listed as a key concern. In recent years, the community has become "more economically and ethnically diverse," the report stated. "While many appreciate this diversity, there are also many who believe these newcomers are responsible for the loss in their quality of life." - LoudounExtra

But the migration of new residents into Sterling Park is, itself, a symptom of a different problem, one touched on but not truly appreciated by some of the residents at the forums the Board is holding. The issue is not migration, but housing. Low-income housing is at a premium in Loudoun, and home values (and thus, the cost of housing) are lower in Sterling Park than elsewhere in the County. This means that people with lower incomes are attracted to the area, and because even less-expensive homes in Sterling Park are often too expensive for one family, often turn single-family homes into multi-family residences.

"Sterling Park is starting to turn into a slum," said Donald Stephens. "We can't take everybody on the bottom end of the scale in Loudoun County. It'll turn into a ghetto. Some of the other districts will have to share some of the low-end housing." - The Loudoun Times-Mirror

The issue of low-income housing is real and growing in Loudoun as foreclosures and economic downturns hit our community hard. Furthermore, the problems are exacerbated by high gas prices. This begins to raise the question of whether Sterling Park will turn into a suburban slum. The Atlantic wrote an important story on the decline of suburban neighborhoods in some areas earlier this year.

The decline of places like Windy Ridge and Franklin Reserve is usually attributed to the subprime-mortgage crisis, with its wave of foreclosures. And the crisis has indeed catalyzed or intensified social problems in many communities. But the story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way in the housing market—a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work. It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. And its effects will be felt more strongly, and more broadly, as the years pass. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound.
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For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay. - The Atlantic

The thesis now is that people want "walkable communities" in which they can live, work and shop without having to go too far. This is a good trend, as it helps our environment (less driving) and our communities (more social interaction in neighborhoods). We can see the success of communities based on the idea of walkability with the popularity of Lansdowne, here in Loudoun, whose towncenter is always busy and provides a patina of urban life in the capital of suburban Virginia.

The demand for more walkable communities means that less walkable and integrated communities suffer, however. And that brings us back to the struggles of Sterling Park.

If gasoline and heating costs continue to rise, conventional suburban living may not be much of a bargain in the future. And as more Americans, particularly affluent Americans, move into urban communities, families may find that some of the suburbs’ other big advantages—better schools and safer communities—have eroded. Schooling and safety are likely to improve in urban areas, as those areas continue to gentrify; they may worsen in many suburbs if the tax base—often highly dependent on house values and new development—deteriorates. Many of the fringe counties in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, for instance, are projecting big budget deficits in 2008. Only Washington itself is expecting a large surplus. Fifteen years ago, this budget situation was reversed.
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As the residents of inner-city neighborhoods did before them, suburban homeowners will surely try to prevent the division of neighborhood houses into rental units, which would herald the arrival of the poor. And many will likely succeed, for a time. But eventually, the owners of these fringe houses will have to sell to someone, and they’re not likely to find many buyers; offers from would-be landlords will start to look better, and neighborhood restrictions will relax. Stopping a fundamental market shift by legislation or regulation is generally impossible. - The Atlantic

This is the exact problem faced by eastern Loudoun. The community of Sterling Park is perceived as less desirable by new home buyers who could afford something different or better, leaving much of its real estate subject to the risks of subprime mortgages. When the housing market collapsed, Sterling Park was hit especially hard by foreclosures. Many of the houses there are beginning the transition to de facto apartments, and the existing residents are fighting that change.

It is incidental that the people who used subprime lending and/or could only afford to rent were also often migrants. In another era they would have been Irish or Italian. The core cause and issue is housing. How desirable is it, and how affordable is it?

Until we solve and address the need for reasonable low-income housing and more integrated, walkable communities, we will continue to go back and forth arguing over symptoms, while the cause is unrecognized and unsolved.

Sen. Obama's Perfect Metaphor

Given the past week, this video of Sen. Obama may be a metaphor for his campaign right now.



And as for Obama's popularity among those serving in our military, as demonstrated in the video. Well, they tend to give more money to Obama's campaign than Sen. McCain.

Where Is Wolf On Iraq?

There has been a lot of change in positions on Iraq in the past few weeks. Even the President now accepts the concept of a "time horizon" in Iraq. Noticeably silent in this debate is that great champion of ceremony and study, Frank Wolf.

For months in 2006 (during his last challenge by Judy), Frank Wolf positioned himself as an expert on the Middle East and a champion of a solution there through the Iraq Study Group. Predictably, that path to a solution was cut off by Republican obstructionism. In 2008 reality has caught up with his rhetoric, and all parties agree it's time to plan an exit for America. And remarkably Frank Wolf has been silent and invisible on the issue on which he staked such a claim to leadership in 2006.

The voters of the 10th District deserve to know where Frank Wolf stands on the issue of withdrawal from Iraq today, in 2008. Does he stand with the American people who overwhelmingly want a withdrawal timeline in line with the vision of leaders like Sen. Obama and Judy Feder, or does he want an unending occupation, like Sen. McCain?

Unfortunately, Congressman Wolf's office is refusing to take phone calls on these questions, and will only accept faxed inquiries. So send your Congressman a fax at 202-225-0437, and ask him whether he supports a timeline for withdrawal by 2010, or whether he stands with Sen. McCain, and an Iraq commitment without close?

A Poisonous Parting Shot

In a big-ole screw you to the American worker, The Executive is trying to ram through new workplace toxins rules that will make it much harder to issue and enforce new regulations on exposure to chemicals in the workplace.

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.
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The text of the proposed rule has not been made public, but according to sources briefed on the change and to an early draft obtained by The Washington Post, it would call for reexamining the methods used to measure risks posed by workplace exposure to toxins. The change would address long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals.

The rule would also require the agency to take an extra step before setting new limits on chemicals in the workplace by allowing an additional round of challenges to agency risk assessments. - The Washington Post

It is that "extra step" that is key to this measure. An additional round of challenges means and additional span of time when the rule is not in effect, and a higher bar for workforce health and safety advocates to jump.

But don't take my word for that.

David Michaels, an epidemiologist and workplace safety professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health, said the rule would add another barrier to creating safety standards, in the name of improving them.

"This is a guarantee to keep any more worker safety regulation from ever coming out of OSHA," Michaels said. "This is being done in secrecy, to be sprung before President Bush leaves office, to cripple the next administration." - The Washington Post

So, on the way out the door, the Bush Administration wants to make it easier to literally poison the American worker.

As ever, it will take a Democrat to clean up this mess.

Negotiating With Evil

Has anyone else noticed that The Executive is now negotiating with both remaining members of the Axis of Evil?

Aren't you not supposed to negotiate with evil?

And doesn't this validate the position Sen. Obama has taken since he started his campaign?

So, the prime minister of Iraq agress with Sen. Obama's plan to get out of Iraq, and the Bush Administration's actions agree with Sen. Obama's positions on negotiations with N. Korea and Iran.

Hmmm... Interesting.

Decentralized Power Grid

After Katrina, a researcher did some examining of how decentralized microgrids could have helped restore communications services faster. That connection to the outside world would have meant a lot less trauma and crisis for a lot more people.

"There has been surprisingly little research on disaster damage and restoration of telecommunications systems," says Kwasinski. "My survey of the Gulf coast after Katrina showed how devastating a single downed line or incapacitated substation can be. The answer is diverse power input. You integrate different types of local power sources with diverse energy delivery infrastructures through multiple-input converter modules."

Since the communications industry power standard is direct current (DC) local networks, Kwasinski is exploring DC generation systems using a microgrid-based telecom power plant with a modular distributed architecture. Energy would come from a mixture of renewable energy sources, microturbines, fuel cells, and interconnection to the existing utility grid. Converters in secondary distribution frames would isolate short circuit currents. Since the utility grid is a secondary source, the microgrid would be protected against the grid's surges and failures.

The savings would be generous. Microgrids could "sell" excess power to the utility grid. Costs decrease because of reduced energy storage, less down time, equipment operating at maximum efficiency, lower hardware expense, and optimal power input control based on energy costs. - ScienceDaily

Given the growing power stability problems in our area, and across America, I believe a decentralization of the grid and a diversity of input sources is the key to future sustainability of power generation and transmission in America. Like the telecom system, the power grid is going to have to become more modular and flexible.

Sen. Holtzman-Vogel's Appearance Of Corruption

Something a little disturbing happened during the Special session of the Assembly last month. Sen. Jill Holtzman-Vogel introduced a bill (SB6016) to impact the outcome of a court case to the advantage of one of her most important supporters, who happened to be a developer.

Lake Holiday News has been on top of this story.

Vogel chose to interfere in an active court case. Her interference was prompted by the request of 1 side, not all sides, and was accompanied by strong and repeated requests by plaintiffs that she abandon her ill-advised plan. Those facts don’t square at all with her own statement that she is not trying to “mess up” the plaintiffs’ position in an active case. That is exactly what her legislation is all about: messing up 1 side for the benefit of the other, which just happens to be that of a big developer. - Lake Holiday News

I do everyone a disservice to try to get into the nasty details myself considering the excellent coverage and level of detail available on Lake Holiday News, so I encourage people to go read the full story there.

That being said, it is undeniably inappropriate for a state Senator to involve herself in an active lawsuit by pushing legislation specifically aimed to change the outcome of that lawsuit. It goes beyond an appearance of corruption to de facto corruption itself when you consider the personal relationships that lead to the legislation. (See, I told you to go read the original post!)

We in Loudoun would do well to pay attention to both the lawsuit and the legislation. The bill in question appears to shift strength from individual property owners to HOAs, and especially HOAs that are still under the control of the original developer by introducing technical changes to how HOAs charters can be challenged as developments are built out in "phases." Considering the collapse of the housing bubble, most developments in Loudoun will have unfinished "phases" for years, and it seems that this legislation ensure that unfinished phases will give the developer explicit and exclusive judicial remedies against legal action on the part of homeowners going foward.

Considering past developer/owner conflicts in Lansdowne, this bill ensures that the only property rights that matter are large property owners' rights. If you do not own an entire develpoment, but instead only own - say - a house in an "unfinished" development, then your voice should be muted and your rights to redress in our Courts should be reduced.

It can only be hoped that the voters remember this action on behalf of a special interest when Sen. Vogel is up for re-election.

Subtle Gender Bias

There has been a lot of good commentary in the past week about the seen and unseen struggles that women in America face every day. Once again, some of the best comes from the United States of Jamerica. In a post entitled "Nickeled and Dimed," the author explains and illustrates the small, subtle, and often invisible actions and inactions that add up to gender bias in some of the most progressive vocations in America.

The entire post is worth reading and considering, but here's a taste.

In less positive, but related news, at work the other week I was reporting on the status of my attempts to get two fiddly little stamps to stamp in alignment using a machine crafted mainly for this purpose. I’d been successful about 1 in every 4 tries in doing so. I was explaining the problems I’d been having with the machine, and was met with the question “Yeah, but the machine works, right?”

Well, yes and no. The real problem is that there are so many different, little, fiddly ways that something can go wrong with what I’m trying to do that it becomes far rarer for me to actually succeed, navigate all the potential hurdles, than to fail. - The United States of Jamerica

The author goes on to draw a parallel to all the "little, fiddly ways" that gender bias creeps into our days, without our even noticing. I suspect I sometimes suffer from "Sudden Male Deafness Syndrome" for example.

Namely, you suggest an idea in a group, which is ignored. Later, some (male) colleague suggests the same idea, which is discussed thoroughly and perhaps eventually implemented. Who gets credit for such an idea? I’ll let you guess. - The United States of Jamerica

I have seen this happen in my professional career, without realizing it was happening.

These kinds of biases and experiences are critically important to understand, and respect, when looking across the Democratic coalition. It is because women's voices have been minimized historically that many people became angry at some of the things said about Sen. Clinton during the primary campaign. And it is because of Sen. Clinton's lifetime fighting through and rising above such things that she served as such an inspiration for millions.

It is critically important that we in the reality-based community remember that to understand a problem is not to condone it, and to fight against a historic wrong is not to win, but only to continuously improve.

Iraq is an Occupation [updated]

And in any case, it's a bit creepy that a general insists that he knows better what US troops in Iraq should be doing than the Iraqi government. That makes it seem like the US presence in Iraq is an .... occupation. - Kos

The Iraqis don't want us there anymore. The Iraqi government doesn't want us there anymore. Our allies in the region don't want us there anymore, and the American people don't want us there anymore.

Yep, let's stay for 100 years.



[update] VoteVets gets the last word.

Off-Leash at Ida Lee

A proposal to allow off-leash hours for dogs in parts of Ida Lee has been revived. What a great idea.

The two requested that town staff and council members consider instituting off leash dog hours for a six-month trial run from dusk to 9 a.m. on the northern end of Ida Lee Park. Acting Co-Director of Parks and Recreation Bill Ference said recently that he is also looking at the possibility of evening off leash hours in two potential sites at the park, on the King Street side as well as a side near Old Waterford Road. Both sites would be about seven acres, he said.

Ference acknowledges that town staff looked at the option of off leash dog hours two years ago but decided that a formal dog park was the better solution. - Leesburg Today

In an era when people complain about being disconnected from their neighbors, there are few things as connecting as dogs. Having an off-leash play area for dogs at Ida Lee would get neighbors to meet neighbors and create one more nexus of social interconnection in the fabric that is Leesburg.

The Council should make this happen. Many kudos to Gigi and Sally for reviving the idea and pushing it forward.

No Houses at Crosstrail?

The saga of Crosstrail continues, but changes in who is serving on the Board of Supervisors means changes in the fate of the land south of Leesburg.

Following a closed session June 3, supervisors approved a resolution to initiate a zoning map amendment for the property that would permit industrial and office development, but prevent residential development. The property is located between the Dulles Greenway and Leesburg Executive Airport and is currently zoned AR-20, permitting low-density residential development. - Leesburg Today

The process to implement this policy continued this week as the Planning Commission voted - unanimously - to forward the "upzoning" (i.e., zoning up to commercial instead of mixed-use) application to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation that it be approved.

There is still a long way to go before the issue of homes being built next to the Leesburg Executive Airport is fully resolved, but this is an important about-face in County policy that is a direct result of the election of people like Kelly Burk to the Board of Supervisors.

"We had no idea that the board was contemplating [this change]," he [Ed Gorski, PEC] said. "I think they should be applauded for taking the initiative to do that." - Leesburg Today

Of course, the land is still subject to a lawsuit and annexation by Leeburg. But both the Town and the County are now opposing houses on that land, so it seems likely that no new homes will be built there.

The remaining wild card is the lawsuit that the Peterson Companies is pursuing against the County's original zoning. If that lawsuit succeeds, we may be back to square one, regardless of the express wishes of the voters, the County and the Town of Leesburg.

The previous board of supervisors voted 8-1 to deny the proposal last July and Peterson Companies filed a lawsuit one month later, alleging that the previous board's 2003 vote to downzone the property to low-density residential uses was inconsistent with the long-established planning policies supporting commercial development in the area. The lawsuit seeks to have the court declare the Joint Land Management Area-20 zoning as unreasonable and illegal, and to declare that the uses proposed in the developer's rezoning application represented a reasonable use and development of the property. - Leesburg Today

Make Sure You're Registered

This year, with the projected massive influx of new voters and attendant complexities it is critical to make sure that you're registered to vote in advance of the election. In Loudoun, there is still time to validate your registration, and there are multiple ways to do it.

You can either:

1. Call the Loudoun County Voter Registration Office at 703 777-0380.

or

2. Access the State Board of Elections through www.loudoun.gov

on the left is a drop down menu called Most Popular Pages select "voting"
on the left, under "Related links" select "State Board of Elections"
on the left, under the gray box, select the big, red check mark in a box that says "Check voter registration status."

or

3. Go directly to the State Board of Elections voter registration website.

This is very important, because these days so many of us are moving in between elections.

Did You Know?

If you have moved since the last time you voted, you need to update your address to remain eligible to vote this November. Check your current registration status online and update your address if it is not current!

If you need to update your name and/or address, you must do it no later than Monday, October 6, 2008. You can submit your notice of name and/or address change either by mail to: 801 Sycolin Road, SE, Suite 102, Leesburg, VA 20175-5686, or by fax to: 703-777-0622.

In either case, the notice must include your signature to be valid. Notice cannot be made by telephone or by e-mail.

After your change is processed, you will be mailed a new Voter Information Card. If a new card does not arrive within a few weeks, please call us at 703-777-0380 to confirm your change was received. - Loudoun.gov

I just checked my registration, and it was there and valid. So double check yours today.

Pictures of Polls

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words.



(With a tip-o-the-hat to Pollster.com.)

New Homes, New Students

During the budget debates this year, the growth in the need for schools was a major point of contention. Our Loudoun Schools now presents the mechanics behind the schools estimates.

If I understand this correctly, according to the Approved Residential Projects list, there were 41,712 units in approved or by-right developments which have yet to be permitted in Loudoun County as of January 1, 2008. So without further approvals that's another 41,712 homes on the way (more than that actually, because it only lists developments of 20 or more homes, but let's stick with what we know).

Housing Type	# Units	SGF	# Students
Single Family	11,161	0.83	9,264
Townhouses	12,468	0.47	5,860
Multifamily	41,712	0.28	11,679

That's a total of 26,803 kids who have yet to arrive (to provide a sense of scale, one year ago our student population was about 54,000). So how many new schools does that call for?

School Type	% of Students	# Students	School Capacity	# Schools
Elementary	51%	13,670	875	16
Middle	22%	5,897	1,350	4
High	27%	7,237	1,850	4

So that's a total of 24 new schools. Most of them will be south of the Greenway (Rt. 267) or West of Rt. 15. Again for scale, we currently have 75 schools, most of them with smaller capacity than the models listed here. - Our Loudoun Schools

When people complain about the cost of education in Loudoun, and the revenue the County needs to support educating our kids, it may be interesting to ask them whether they were complaining when the previous, pro-development Board made the decisions that put the County in a position to be absorbing 41,000 new homes in the next decade.

Suspicious Diebold Election Patch

In another example of the fact that reality is always weirder than fiction, a top cyber-security advisor to the McCain campaign suspects that the CEO of Deibold attempted to influence the outcome of critical elections in Georgia in 2002 by applying a patch to the Diebold machines in critical counties.

Stephen Spoonamore is the founder and until recently the CEO of Cybrinth LLC, an information technology policy and security firm that serves Fortune 100 companies. At a little noticed press conference in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, he discussed his investigation of a computer patch that was applied to Diebold Election Systems voting machines in Georgia right before that state's November 2002 election.
...
The first red flag went up when the computer patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in from Texas and applied it in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds. The source states that Cox was not privy to these changes until after the election and that she became particularly concerned over the patch being installed in just those two counties.

The whistleblower said another flag went up when it became apparent that the patch installed by Urosevich had failed to fix a problem with the computer clock, which employees from Diebold and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office had been told the patch was designed specifically to address. - The Raw Story

This story exploded onto the blogosphere Friday.

We remember the 2002 elections in Georgia as a shock to the system, as multiple-amputee war hero Max Cleland was (theoretically?) defeated by now Sen. Saxby Chambliss by being cast as soft on terrorism. Now, doubt is raised that the Republicans would have done so well had there not been some sneaky software shenanigans in the election machinery there. The article goes on to talk about potential expansion of this tampering in Ohio in 2004. The patch in question included, for example, two full copies of the voting software, and the question is asked, why would a patch need two full copies of the entire operating code? My company does software for a living, and our patches never include two copies of the entire program being fixed.

Viewed in a wider, and admittedly tin-foil-hat perspective, it is now possible that the Republicans did not actually win the Presidency in 2000 and did not achieve the level of Congressional dominance they assumed in 2002 and perhaps were in a position to tweak the results in 2004. We should not go down the road of conspiracy theories, but America should get a full investigation and accounting into these allegations to prevent further uninformed speculation and suspicion that our elected leaders were not elected after all.

Who Holds The Gun?

So this image is a little overwraught, and "trenchant" in the words of a colleague, but it does distill a certain truth from centuries of political theory.

“It’s akin to negotiating with someone who has put a gun on the table in front of you,” Derek Hunter, federal affairs manager for Americans for Tax Reform, said, describing the administration’s effort to oversee a coordinated response from the private lending sector to assist distressed homeowners.

“It’s not regulation in the traditional sense; it’s, ‘Here’s what we’d like to see, and if you don’t come to something soon, ... we will come down with the force of government on you and make it happen.’ It’s definite market interference,” he said. - Politico.com

It is frustrating to hear arguments that markets and capitalism do not need the state, and that governments just get in the way when they get involved in market affairs. Without governments we would have no currencies to enable fungible trade, no third-party enforceability of contracts, and no property protections themselves.

The extent and role of government is, of course, debatable, but too often conservative arguments end up asserting that all government is always bad, as characterized by the "necessary evil" formulation. Does it really make people feel better to call something necessary "evil?" To denigrate and minimize the importance of the necessary is what got us to Katrina, Iraq, the mortgage crisis and the past seven and a half years of mismanagement.

In the end, it always comes back to public action to resolve public problems and that is the role and importance of government. It is the reason that government should be professional, respected and most of all effective. That does not mean that government actions should not be examined and critiqued, far from it, but it does mean that we should all recognize that in a Democracy, we are the government, and a government not acting in our own interests and preventing private actors from inflicting public harms is a government in need of change.

An Interlude: Ramalama

How about a little zombie dance?


So You Think You Can Dance Ramalama Bang Bang - More amazing videos are a click away

Lies About Taxes

There's a virulent email going around that is full of flat-out-falsehoods about the relative impacts of Sen. Obama's and Sen. McCain's economic proposals. Essentially, it states that Sen. Obama is going to significantly increase taxes on everybody, which is false. You can get the facts on the matter from FactCheck.org.

Here's the summary conclusion from that neutral public-interest site:

A new e-mail being circulated about Obama's tax proposals is almost entirely false.

Alert readers may already have noted that this chain e-mail does not provide links to any of Obama's actual proposals or cite any sources for the claims it makes. That is because they are made up.This widely distributed message is so full of misinformation that we find it impossible to believe that it is the result of simple ignorance or carelessness on the part of the writer. Almost nothing it says about Obama's tax proposals is true. We conclude that this deception is deliberate. - FactCheck.org

It's pretty important to smack these falsehoods down as soon as they crop up, just remember that accurate information on the Internet should be - and will be - sourced to original documents. If it's not, it's someone's assertion, not a fact.

(With a tip-o-the-hat to RK.)

Best Campaign Site Ever

You gotta love a candidate who is running for office xkcd style.

This is the kind of difference we want to see more of in our political systems. People who believe in science and technology taking on entrenched interests in places like Kansas. This is what the 50 state strategy means. This is what we need to take back our country.

(with a tip-o-the-hat to Vivian Paige.)

Loudoun Is a Purple Place

The Washington Posts' Virginia Politics blog has a summary up of the commonwealth's "Purple Places" and at the top of their list is Loudoun County:

Loudoun County: Until early this decade, Loudoun was solidly Republican because of its mix of conservative, rural residents and people who were fleeing the inner suburbs. But the county's rapid growth -- its population has risen by nearly 50 percent since 2000 -- is changing its politics.

In the 2005 governor's race, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine surprised many by convincingly winning the county over Republican Jerry W. Kilgore, a former attorney general. A year later, Sen. James Webb (D) won Loudoun over former GOP senator George Allen. Democratic gains in the county were reinforced last year, when Democrats secured a majority on the Board of Supervisors.

Many parts of Loudoun are still relatively conservative, and Democratic presidential candidates have not had much luck there. President Bush won Loudoun with 56 percent of the vote in 2000 and 2004, although the number of people casting ballots in the county increased by more than 25.percent between the elections.

But Loudoun voters are among the wealthiest, most educated in the nation, making them one of Obama's prime targets in the fall, because he did well with those groups during the primaries. Minorities who tend to vote Democratic could also give him a boost in Loudoun, where 11 percent of residents are foreign born. - The Washington Post

So there you have it. Loudoun is "purple" according to the Post, though the Democrats have won the past few years. I hope we will all work hard to make it Blue in 2008, and elect President Obama, Senator Warner and Congresswoman Feder, so that in 2009 and on, Loudoun takes its rightful place among the leading Blue localities in Virginia.

Sen. Webb Saves Scout

It is a measure of the absurdity of our immigration system that a Boy Scout whose family is in America legally was saved from being deported, potentially alone, by the intervention of Virginia's Sen. Webb.

Less than a week before his court-ordered deadline to pack up and leave the country, 13-year-old Boy Scout Jose Andrade got a reprieve.

Thanks to a half-dozen or so letters of concern sent to U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) about the teen's deportation and separation from his family, Jose can still call Virginia home. - Loudoun Times-Mirror

Would that we wouldn't need a U.S. Senator to intervene to prevent cases of gross injustice from being inflicted on children.

Credit is due to the Loudoun Times for being on top of this and providing reporting on it in a timely manner. It is likely that without their original article Jose would have been lost in the system, and sent to a place that is not his home.

“We received the initial communication from the Scout leader on May 14,” said Jessica Smith, Webb's communication director. “More letters followed from concerned community members after [a Times-Mirror] story [on Jose] ran in mid-June.”

She said Webb's office in late May sent a standard letter of inquiry to ICE. The merits of Jose's case and not the senator's inquiry played the lead role in ICE's decision, Smith said. - The Loudoun Times-Mirror

Although this, single case of injustice has been averted, Leesburg Tomorrow's commentary on this case from June remains true, and relevant for thousands of other families in the Commonwealth.

Jose's mother is here legally, and her other two children are U.S. Citizens. It is unconscionable to insist that two citizens and a legal resident leave the country to remain united with their son and sibling. It is an impossible choice, and yet one that current policy forces parents to make.

Our immigration laws and policies are not just broken, they are fundamentally unjust and harmful to those who are most vulnerable. In a nation that is supposed to provide "equal justice for all" there are people who have a very difficult time with the definition of "all." Justice for all means everyone, not just people who look like you. Tearing a family apart for the sake of bureaucracy is not justice, it is a crime. - Leesburg Tomorrow, June 12, 2008

The Earth Collapses Under The Weight Of Houses

Some more for the "Consequences of development, 2003-2008" file. In this case, how the previous Board of Supervisors' no-holds-barred development policies approved development on ground that could not support it, literally.

Since 2000, dozens of sinkholes have opened up in a 28.5-square-mile area stretching from Leesburg to Point of Rocks near the Maryland border. Although many of the sinkholes were less than a foot wide, at least two that formed in an area slated for a housing development were 30 feet wide and 30 feet deep, a county official said. Another in 2005 created a chasm in the middle of Route 15.
...
The problem, county officials said, is rapid development of land that rests on soft, porous limestone, often referred to as karst. Another danger of building in such areas is groundwater pollution, which occurs when pesticides and other contaminants rush into the water supply. - LoudounExtra

A lot of land slated for development is on top of limestone karst. That's bad. When the water in the limestone drains out because we're using more of our available water than we used to, the ground becomes less stable, and the pores in limestone collapse, causing sinkholes.

In 2003, the Board of Supervisors adopted regulations that limited development in limestone areas as part of a broad plan to slow growth in Loudoun, one of the nation's fastest-growing counties. But a year later, the Virginia Supreme Court threw out the plan on a technicality.

The supervisors who took over the board that year generally supported the growth and rejected limits on development in limestone areas. Last year, in the waning weeks of the pro-growth supervisors' term, the members reversed course and said they would support some regulations governing construction in the limestone area. - LoudounExtra

So not only did the previous Board leave us with lawsuits and budget deficits, but also actual, physical holes in the land itself caused in part by rampant development. We should keep these issues in mind as we evaluate the job the current Board of Supervisors is doing. This Board has done a remarkable job so far cleaning up the mess they inherited, up to, and including sinkholes.

The current board, which supports a slower rate of growth, today is scheduled to consider new regulations for the county's limestone area. Under the proposed rules, builders would have to take steps to minimize the risk of sinkholes, and homeowners would have to be educated about the danger of groundwater contamination.

"It is one of our most sensitive geographic areas. We have historically seen an increase in sinkholes as development has gone on in the corridor," said Supervisor Sarah R. "Sally" Kurtz (D-Catoctin), whose district includes most of the limestone area. "It's a matter of preventing property loss — as in, your whole ... house goes down a sinkhole." - LoudounExtra

One could be forgiven for thinking that "house goes down a sinkhole" was only a metaphor for the mortgage crisis, but here in Loudoun, it could be both metaphor, and reality.

Sen. Herring, Judy Feder at the LCDC Tonight

If you want to know what happened to our transportation solution in Richmond last month, come to tonight's LCDC meeting. Sen. Mark Herring will be there to talk transportation and provide some insight into the special Assembly session.

Remember, that we are having our monthly Loudoun County Democratic Committee meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, July 16 at 6:30pm. Join Senator Mark Herring, Judy Feder and the LCDC for a fun and informative meeting.

Senator Herring will share his views on our transportation problems and the next steps. Time allowing he'll share with us his experiences in Richmond.

Dr. Judy Feder will talk with us about her plans to change Washington, by changing a Congressional fixture who has been trudging along as the 10th CD Representative for over two decades. President Obama will need the legislative support he can count on from Judy.

In addition, you'll hear about the Coordinated, Obama, Warner and Feder campaign strategies and plans, the Young Democrats new and growing organization and what is going on in your neighborhoods and districts.

We start at 6:30 with a social half hour while we gather. The meeting begins at 7:00 and ends no later than 9:00.

Directions
John W. Tolbert, Jr. Elementary School
691 Potomac Station Drive
Leesburg, Virginia 20176

Richmond's Habeas Corpus Role

Everyone has heard of the Supreme Court decision granting habeas corpus rights to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. That was an important battle in the restoration of civil liberties in the United States. But the next battle runs through Richmond, Virginia. There, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on the single civilian being held indefinitely under an order from President Bush.

President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision.

But a second, overlapping 5-to-4 majority of the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, ruled that Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar now in military custody in Charleston, S.C., must be given an additional opportunity to challenge his detention in federal court there. An earlier court proceeding, in which the government had presented only a sworn statement from a defense intelligence official, was inadequate, the second majority ruled. - The New York Times

What is interesting is that the 4th Circuit has ruled on al Mirri before. The circuit's original panel decision was among the first reversals of the Bush's claims of power under national security doctrines. The 4th Circuit is extremely divided, so the Supreme Court is likely to get a crack at this decision in the coming term.

Thus, the Circuit Court in Richmond has been playing an important role in the evolution of habeas corpus in the U.S., demonstrating the divisions on this question and providing fodder for ultimate decisions by the Supreme Court. Virginia serves as a microcosm for America in many ways.

The Nuclear Anniversary

From a mailing list a colleague is on:

In 1945 on this day, the first atomic bomb exploded at 5:30 a.m., 120 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. People saw a ball of fire that rose rapidly, releasing four times the heat of the interior of the sun, followed by a 40,000 foot mushroom cloud. The bomb was supposed to give the United States "peace through strength." Officials told the New Mexican citizens that an ammunitions dump had blown up. The project's director, Kenneth Bainbridge, watched the column of fire and dust and said, "Now we are all sons of bitches." Today, radiation levels on the spot are still 10 times that of radiation levels found in nature, and the ground is marked by a lava stone obelisk and a plaque that reads, "Where the World's First Nuclear Device Was Exploded on July 16, 1945."

Congress Protects Doctors

Add another win to the list of the accomplishments our Democratic Congress has under its belt. This time, they overrode President Bush's veto of the Medicare bill, literally at the last possible moment.

President Bush sought to block a bill yesterday aimed at forestalling an 11 percent cut in payments to doctors taking care of Medicare patients, but Congress quickly overrode his veto.

The House voted 383 to 41 to override the veto, while the Senate voted 70 to 26, in both cases far more than the two-thirds necessary to block the president's action. - The Washington Post

The key to understanding this action is the timing. When Sen. Kennedy dramatically returned to the Senate to cast the 60th vote on the bill in June, it led to a stampede of support from the other side, leading to a remarkable abandonment of party unity and principles on the part of Senate Republicans, and a 69-30 ("veto-proof") majority. This was largely because Doctors had screamed bloody murder to their representatives in the Senate when faced with cuts in their medicare payments, going so far as to withdraw support for Sen. Cornyn in Texas. Needless to say, Republican Senators have few friends in the world these days, so they're willing to sell their loyalty and principals if faced by a threat to their incumbency.

Of course, a majority is only "veto-proof" if it overrides an actual veto later in the process, which set up yesterday's machinations. I will let our friend Kagro X explain.

The veto is given little chance to be sustained, but it's interesting to watch Bush go through the motions even when he "doesn't have the votes."

Why tomorrow and not today? Because President Bush is a petulant, vindictive and childish dick, that's why:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had issued a temporary delay on physician pay cuts until July 15 to allow lawmakers more time to pass the legislation. - McKnights

Tomorrow's date, of course, is July 15. This way, Bush assures either that the bureaucrats have to go through an embarrassing scramble again, or that medical care providers actually get hurt by his veto crayon.

The "grown up" in charge, ladies and gentlemen. They can't get this asshole out of the White House fast enough. - Kagro X

So, basically, President Bush wanted to force Congress to try to get this veto override done in one day, hoping to throw a shoe in the machine like a luddite. Of course, all The Executive succeeded in doing was further fracturing Party unity among the Republicans in Congress.

With organized medicine and other lobbies promoting the popular measure in an election year, Republicans broke heavily from the White House. A total of 153 House Republicans voted to defy the White House, 24 more than in a June 24 vote that started the momentum toward passage of the Medicare doctors' bill yesterday. Twenty-one Senate Republicans voted for the bill this time, including four senators who had voted "nay" in the two previous Medicare votes. - The Washington Post

So, this week alone, our Democratic Congress passed mortgage reform and prevented doctors' from seeing arbitrary cuts in their Medicare payments. All this in the heat of a Presidential campaign and over the objections of the White House.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

An Interlude: 24601

In honor of Dr. Horrible, a friend sent me a link to this.



Consider it your Wednesday morning funny.

An Interlude: Tasty Burger

If they pull this off, I may never eat anything else for dinner again.

The quest for the perfect hamburger, as any ambitious barbecuer knows, is an exact science. And science is all about trial and error.
...
The result is a lean beef burger that is low-fat, low-sodium and juicy, without saturated fat, and that tastes -- according to limited consumer tests -- as though it probably shouldn't be good for you.

Essentially, what the scientists have done is take the beef fat out of the meat and replace it with a combination of substitutes less likely to clog arteries. Those substitutes include high oleic sunflower oil and fats from seafood rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which many studies suggest benefit cardiovascular health. They also added phytosterols to the mix -- a byproduct of soybeans that can lower the body's cholesterol absorption. - The Washington Post

Mmmm...hamburgers.



And how about a new Joss Whedon musical?

www.drhorrible.com

Hiring The Wrong Teachers? [updated]

A friend forwarded an interesting article from Slate on the impact of hiring the right (or wrong) teachers and student achievement on standardized tests. While the value of the standardized test measurement is debatable, the entrenchment of bad teachers is a chronic problem in many underperforming school districts. When I lived in New York City, for example, the renewal of the teacher's union contract was a hot button issue for the Bloomberg administration. And I found it absurd that there were hundreds of teachers paid not to teach because they were too risky to be exposed to the kids in the classroom.

The principal in the Slate article has this proposal for dealing with the "who to hire" question.

What if there were a way to screen out the bad teachers before they get entrenched? Currently, New York City teachers get their union cards their first day on the job. In theory they're on probation for three years after that, but in practice very few are forced out. Lombardi suggests replacing this system with an apprenticeship program. Rather than requiring teaching degrees (which don't seem to improve value-added all that much), new recruits would have a couple of years of in-school training. There would then come a day of reckoning, when teachers-to-be would face a serious evaluation before securing union membership and a job for life. - Slate.com

What an interesting idea. Though I do not like the "apprenticeship" aspect. Personally, I feel that all our teachers should have college degrees. That being said, a real 3-year probation period, without a de-facto guarantee of tenure, and using objective measurements of classroom results to determine union eligibility at the end, appears to be a good way to ensure that teachers who are doing their job and doing it well get the rewards of tenure without allowing a few bad apples to bring disrepute onto the union and the profession.

Teachers unions are blamed for a lot, and are seen widely as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Support for an enforceable system of accountability and stringent qualifications for membership would go a long way, I believe, towards mitigating these misplaced attitudes.

Note: Since Virginia is a "Right to Work" state, Virginia's schools are not impacted by union contracts the way that New York schools are. In fact, Virginia has far greater labor and workforce flexibility than many other areas. Within the first three years the contracts required annual renewal and any teacher's contract can be "non-renewed" without cause. After three years state law implements a series of protections for teachers that include longer contracts and a lengthier for-cause termination process.

[update] A quote from another friend.

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest responsibility anyone could have." - Lee Iacocca

In the interest of full disclosure, my mom was a 3rd grade teacher, my brother teaches special needs kids in Australia, my daughter's godfather is a teacher, and my wife has taught at the college level, and will again. Oh, and I was proud as hell to help elect a teacher, Kelly Burk, to the Board of Supervisors last year.

[update 2] School Board member John Stevens has a great post up on student achievement and the difficulty we have pinpointing its causes.

Ogbu's book was controversial, and some academics fault the research. Ultimately he concluded that it was the failure of parents, and not the school district, the led to the gap. Even critics of his book seem to agree that the fundamental difference between these students is not at school but the degree to which parents oversee their own children's education instead of leaving it entirely to the school. If I understand these reports correctly, they conclude that what the schools need to do more than reach out to the students is reach out to their parents. - John Stevens' commentary on John Ogbu's research

Go. Read.

[update 3] And my daughter's godfather gets the very last word.

I don't think you can objectively measure a teacher's effectiveness through student grades and test scores because there are so many other variables at play (namely, the students themselves).

Ah yes the students. They're kinda the whole point.

Thanks for the reminder.

Less Coal = Better Cognition

This sounds like a fantasy, but it's true.

Closing Coal-fired Power Plants Improves Cognitive Development Of Children, New Study Suggests

Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on children's cognitive development and health according to a study released by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The study allowed researchers to track and compare the development of two groups of children born in Tongliang, a city in China's Chongqing Municipality -- one in utero while a coal-fired power plant was operating in the city and one in utero after the Chinese government had closed the plant.
...
"This study provides direct evidence that governmental action to eliminate polluting coal-burning sources benefits children's neurodevelopment," said Frederica Perera, DrPH, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, and lead author of the study. "These findings have major implications for environmental health and energy policy as they demonstrate that reduction in dependence on coal for energy can have a measurable positive impact on children's development and health -- in China and elsewhere." - ScienceDaily

Just more evidence that coal is unhealthy, period. Sure, we have a lot of it, and sure, it's an economic engine for parts of Virginia with little else to provide jobs, but expanding our coal-based economy has consequences, and we need to consider them carefully in debates over energy going forward.

Letters, Accusations and Loudoun's Homeless

The tete-a-tete between the GSA and Supervisor Waters has moved from private communications in the halls of Government, to the newspapers, and now to an exchange of letters. Supervisor Waters responded first to articles in LoudounExtra and the GSA.

Over the last week and a half, Good Shepherd Alliance (GSA) has launched accusations about the County’s services to the homeless through a public input session and the press. I was quite surprised at the approach taken, especially since the GSA spokesman, Mr. Nicholas Graham, has frequently communicated with my office directly with questions on various issues. If GSA officials had questions about the county’s operations, I would have expected them to call me or the Director of Family services directly instead of starting a public controversy based on no dialogue. - Supervisor Lori Waters

Supervisor Waters then goes on to address many of the critiques of County performance in taking over the Leesburg drop-in facility on an item-by-item basis. In essence, Supervisor Waters' letter says that the County is doing all it can and all it agreed to, and the GSA should have been more cordial in its information inquiries and advice to the County as the County takes over operations of the Leesburg facility.

Based on all of this, I believe that the county is absolutely living up to its promises made last year, including the provision of drop-in services to homeless individuals and especially the seven men who regularly use the center. Loudoun County has stepped in several times to meet the needs of the homeless overall and in instances when GSA no longer could. - Supervisor Lori Waters

In the content of her letter, however, Supervisor Waters raises the spectre of homeless people invading Ashburn, even though the entire point of the agreement between the GSA and the County was to avoid having "those people" come to town and Supervisor Waters herself believes there to be only five to seven homeless men in need of help, all of whom are known to the County. She closes this appeal to fear with an ominous and unspecified threat to the GSA.

I do not know why GSA took the approach it did in communicating its attacks, but on the other hand, I don’t believe it is out of character based on how they communicated with the public last year about their move to Ashburn. Considering the unfounded accusations of the county abandoning the homeless, I am certainly having difficulty with rebuilding trust and reaching a new, positive relationship. While I do not believe that GSA selected the best location to serve the homeless population or specifically their clients, I do not have the legal authority to prevent them from using their Ashburn Rd. location. However, I would note that GSA Board Chairman Joyce Trickett unequivocally and unconditionally stated in a Nov. 27, 2007 letter to the community, “GSA has NO plans to establish any kind of day or drop-in center in Ashburn. We could not be more clear.” If they now intend on amending their plans to include a drop-in center or even “appointment” based drop-in services, they will be breaching the understanding from last year and doing so based on their own choices, not because of the county’s actions. If GSA is going to have a true or de facto drop-in center, such actions will have consequences though. - Supervisor Lori Waters

As we assess the assertions and information contained within Supervisor Waters' letter, we must separate the issue of County management of the drop-in center in Leesburg from the issue of the Center Of Hope in Ashburn. It is one thing to explain how the County is fulfilling its responsibilities in the operation of the Leesburg facility. Supervisor Waters does well to explain the actions of the County when they are called into question.

However, it is another thing entirely to imply that the GSA intends to turn the Center of Hope into a "de facto drop-in center" and warn about "consequences" even though Supervisor Waters does not "have the legal Authority to prevent them from using their Ashburn Rd. location." This is an appeal to the fears and worries of her constituents, pure and simple. All the GSA can do is show its good faith through its many actions to keep the community informed and involved in its plans and activities. They cannot prove the negative that they will not operate a drop-in center in Ashburn. In effect, Supervisor Waters can forever have the GSA at a disadvantage by implying that next year, the GSA will invite homeless people to Ashburn.

The GSA has now responded to Supervisor Waters' response with a lengthy letter of its own. In it, the GSA draws attention to its role not only as providing services for those who need help in Loudoun, but also advocating for them before elected officials.

It is a mistake and misguided to simplistically translate genuine, fact-based expressions of concern and advocacy for “accusations” and “attacks”. Nonsense. If the County is going to take away and takeover a non-profit’s longtime operation, then the County must be prepared to receive the exact same level of scrutiny to which the GSA has been painfully subjected since last Fall’s community meeting at Ashburn Elementary. - The Good Shepherd Alliance

The GSA provides its own version of the events leading to the County's temporary closure of the Leesburg facility and its aftermath.

It is exceptionally important that citizens understand that before the GSA took its case to the community regarding the daytime drop-in center we vacated as scheduled on June 30th, we communicated thoroughly and diligently about the transition of the space and operations with the County staff. In fact, we have been feeding the County information and data about its operations since the early winter. In June, both our GSA Administrator and Chair of the Board of Directors communicated with County staff and Mr. Rob Eamich about the drop in center and concerns we had.

Only in mid-June we were informed – through a mass email – that the County was reducing the hours of operation by 50%, operating it part time 9am to 1pm, Monday through Thursday, and Friday from 1pm to 5pm. (the GSA operated it all day from 9am to 5pm, based purely on need and demand). We immediately expressed our concern and opposition to County staff, and to HOAs and residents. We were not properly consulted. How that transpired remains unclear and confusing to us. Then, just before we vacated the premises on June 30th, we were told that the day center would be closed until further notice. Then, after we vacated the premises, a visit to the center demonstrated that there was no documented efforts to make its users aware and educated about any transition period or transition services…no posted signs, no handouts, nothing.
...
We were absolutely promised that the drop-in center, under the County’s operation, would be ‘seamlessly’ transitioned, and it would be ‘turn-key’. Those words were inferred at the time very clearly to mean that the County would operate the day center in the exact same manner in which the GSA did, and in the manner accustomed to by the very clients and guests who use it. That was the deal. That was the handshake. Plain and simple. Not open to interpretation. It is enfranchised in the Board vote of November 20th, 2007. - The Good Shepherd Alliance

It is interesting to note that the resolution the Board voted on in November, 2007, anticipated renovations to the facility, which would involve its temporary closure.

Supervisor Waters moved that the Board of Supervisors endorse the plan by Supervisor Waters for the County to assume responsibility for providing drop in services to the homeless in Leesburg as soon as it is practical given the need for improvements to the site and for staff to identify potential sources of funding and partnerships for this program, including but not limited to a review of the funding provided to GSA by the County, funding in the Housing Trust Fund, a HomeAid partnership, and negotiations with the Sycolin Road property owner. Seconded by Supervisor Kurtz. The motion passed 6-3, Supervisors Delgaudio, Snow, and Staton voted no. - Board of Supervisors minutes, November 20, 2007

Thus, while things may be implied and inferred, the County did state, explicitly, that they would provide drop-in services "as soon as it is practical given the need for improvements to the site..." Thus, the County was, in fact, fulfilling its obligations by resolution in its renovations to the site. That, of course, does not obviate legitimate criticisms of how the County informed those it served at the facility about the closure.

It is easy and unhelpful to get bogged down in accusations about who promised what when there is little written record supporting either side. It is likely the case that representatives of the County, probably including Supervisor Waters herself, verbally agreed to a seamless and turn-key transition of the Leesburg facility's operations. But it was somewhat naive of the GSA to take their word for it without getting it in writing in the enabling resolution before the Board of Supervisors. The GSA is to be commended for its idealism and trust of the word of a Supervisor, but will be justified in its skepticism of official promises without official documentation going forward.

The real issue in this argument is the extent to which the needs of Loudoun's residents who are in between homes or at risk of homelessness are being served, and thus the demand for services at the Leesburg facility and the GSA's Center of Hope in Ashburn. Supervisor Waters emphasized the "five to seven" men who use the Leesburg facility. The GSA provides some illustrative data about the real extent of Loudoun's need for homeless assistance.

In paragraph five, the letter overviews demand for services at the day drop-in center. This is at the core of our concerns regarding the drop-in site. The letter cites that “only five to seven” citizens used the drop-in center. That is wholly inaccurate. We know that 5 to 7 is the minimum level of usage at the site. During many other times of the year – usually during ‘back-to-school’ and winter days, or extremely hot days – that number can rise to as much as 20 people daily. It could change tomorrow. In addition, a documented measurement of usage this year from January to June shows exactly 88 different, unique visitors using that facility, and 1,200 meals being served.
...
Let us be clear about the daytime usage. It fluctuates. It’s seasonal. It’s certainly ongoing. By focusing on the minimum of “only 5 to 7” users, the County is not operating for planning purposes on true long-term needs. It’s not reflective of a week to week, or month-to-month measurement. It appears that this measurement was taken informally in a survey over a few days in late June or July, at one of the slowest, “low-point” times of the year for day center usage…and over a holiday week.
...
The GSA’s own year-round data collection showed that we had to turn away almost 1,000 women, children, and babies in 2007 due to lack of shelter space, staff or resources. That was a huge increase over 2006 levels. This year alone, our cumulative count as of June 30 shows almost 500 turnaways, on par to meet – and perhaps exceed – last year’s count. - The Good Shepherd Alliance

Good management means avoiding surprises. It would be awful if the County were surprised by the extent of the demand for the services it has agreed to supply, and is forced to spend extra money on an emergency basis later this year to meet that demand. Indeed, it would be a minor scandal in its own right at a time when the County is looking to improve its efficiency and long-term planning.

The GSA's letter concludes with a proposal to lay this issue to rest and bring all concerned to a compromise.

To the entire Loudoun Board of Supervisors, we make this appeal for an immediate compromise: vote on a new County-GSA brokered proposal that maintains the Sycolin Road’s day drop-in center operating hours per our agreement of last fall (M-F, 9am-5pm); following one year of complete operation, let’s together sit down and re-evaluate operations, when we can then review the usage numbers for seasonality fluctuations and reassess demand moving forward. By doing this, we fully serve our homeless, maintain the previous agreement’s good-faith intent, and this plan would also – according to the County and Ms. Waters’ “Open Letter” - take us roughly to the time when the County will be opening their new shelter in the Fall of 2009, which will have “…a new, permanent drop-in center, which does include the potential for full-time hours.” That, to us, is the exact right approach and common-sense middle ground here. - The Good Shepherd Alliance

This is a reasonable, responsible and middle-of-the road proposal which takes the vitriol out of the conversation about what those most at risk of destitution in our community do, and do not, need to get back on their feet. It returns the Leesburg facility to its original operating hours, but provides a checkpoint at which the necessity of those hours will be considered in light of actual, recorded demand for services over a relevant and significant period of time.

What is necessary is not letters and accusations between Supervisor Waters and the GSA. What is necessary is real help for the real people in real need of assistance. The GSA is fulfilling its mission in advocating for that cause before the Board of the Supervisors, even as the Board is fulfilling its mission in making the most efficient use of County revenues in its operation of the facilities it took over from the GSA. It is absolutely imperative, however, that the County understand that assumption of that responsibility does not immunize it from outside accountability and criticism. External criticism and accountability are absolutely essential to honest and open government, and are to be expected, always. If you want to avoid criticism, avoid public office.

Supervisor Waters should remember that.

Karl Rove Swears To Lie

Perhaps you are aware that Karl Rove is among the many former Bush Administration officials who are showing contempt and derision at Congressional oversight authority. On the radio this morning a brief news story mentioned that Karl Rove was willing to testify before Congress, as long as there is no transcript and it is not under oath.

...he has offered to answer questions specifically on the Siegelman case - but only with no transcript taken and not under oath.

Democrats have rejected the offer because the testimony would not be sworn and, they say, could create a confusing record. - Ben Evans, AP

The only reason you refuse to testify under oath, with a transcript, is because you do not want to be held accountable for what you say. The entire point of Congressional oversight is to hold government officials accountable.

In effect, Karl Rove will agree to go before Congress and lie, off the record. If he's not allowed to lie and be off the record he's not going. Yes, this is the administration of "accountability and responsibility" alright.

The Gripest Generation

The Washington Post has a funny, though condescending, article about the Baby Boomer Generation.

Back in the 1970s, "we were going to build an idealistic culture. We weren't going to be alone. We were going to leave the world a better place." And now? "The hope has been eroded." In other words, boomers used to be gloomy because the world needed change. Now, they're gloomy because change didn't work out quite as they'd hoped.

Sigh. Those poor, tortured boomers, slouching around like our angsty brother who insists on being called "Holden." - The Washington Post

Considering the reams of criticism directed by Boomers (and some post-Boomers) at "kids these days," I must admit a small bit of pleasure at reading the article, though it is ridiculous to dismiss an entire generation as "whiners." The Boomers are no more whiners than Gen Xers are slackers. Every generation has its conditions and formative experiences which color perceptions, but are not deterministic of attitude or outcomes.

I, for one, want to thank the Baby Boomers for many things: Ending the war in Viet Nam, improvements in gender equality, environmentalism, and video games, to name a few. We're not going to win our way out of the mess The Executive will leave behind by slinging stones and arrows across generations, but rather by bringing all ages together to rebuild America.

And that's what we're going to do. So complain on, Boomers, just be sure you're knocking on doors, fighting for change while you do it!

Congress Addresses the Mortgage Mess

Congress doesn't get credit for the good things it gets done from time to time, so we should pay attention to what our Democratic Congress accomplished recently. A good, reasonable compromise bill addressing homeowners hit hard by the mortgage meltdown passed both houses, albeit in slightly different forms. Leesburg Tomorrow opined on the House version in April, and last week the Senate passed their bill.

The centerpiece of the legislation would authorize the Federal Housing Administration to help 400,000 distressed borrowers trade exotic loans that have rapidly rising monthly payments for more affordable loans backed by the federal government. The FHA would insure the new loans if the current lenders agree to forgive a portion of each homeowner's debt.

The package includes a plan to modernize the FHA and create a strong new regulator for struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a move supporters say would shore up confidence in the companies. There are also $14.5 billion in tax breaks, including a credit of up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers. Additionally, the bill would provide $3.9 billion in emergency funds for local governments to purchase vacant, foreclosed properties. - The Washington Post

I especially like the "accept reality" provisions implied by the homeowner/lender aspects of the deals. Home lenders, who gorged on misplaced debt leading to artificially higher home prices, will be forced to accept realistic valuations of the homes they lended against, and thus reductions in principal in exchange for a reduction of their risk on those mortgages. Meanwhile, homeowners will get much more reasonable, and stable mortgages.

As for the emergency funding for localities to deal with the impact of foreclosed homes sitting unoccupied in their neighborhoods, the Post reports that money is likely to be stripped from the final bill. That's too bad, as it's a good idea, but perhaps it can be revisited next year, under a new Administration.

The Democratic Congress is stepping up and getting things done for us, folks. The wheels of Congress move slowly, but they move, and this mortgage crisis bill is a good example of that.

McCain's Offices, Obama's Efforts

The Washington Post appears to be mistaking movement for progress in its reporting on the McCain campaign in Virginia. In this case, reporter Tim Craig makes a subjective assessment of the impact of an announcement from the McCain campaign.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, appears to beating Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) when it comes to announcing campaign offices across the state. - The Washington Post

It's one thing to report on announced campaign offices (one presumes that Mr. Craig did not do the research (yet?) to discover whether these offices actually exist or not), but another thing entirely to say that Sen. McCain is "beating" Sen. Obama in some false competition.

Mr. Craig should know that it isn't how many offices you have, but rather how many people you have which defines how well a campaign is doing. Offices are like signs, they're impressive but they don't vote. While Sen. McCain's campaign has been spending its money renting office space in Virginia, Sen. Obama has invested in people, bringing hundreds of volunteers and Obama Organizing Fellows to the Old Dominion. So let McCain have his offices, as long as Sen. Obama keeps putting boots on the ground in Virginia.

The creation of some silly, non-existent "office competition" between the Obama and McCain campaigns is not worthy of the Washington Post's political reporting. It leads us to ask whether the Post is looking for something positive to say about McCain in Virginia. Perhaps they are, after all, the sentence about the Democratic Party's efforts began like this:

But the Virginia Democrat Party's coordinated campaign... - Tim Craig, The Washington Post

Ah, the old "Democrat Party" put-down. There's nothing better than seeing a Republican phrase echoed as proper terminology by the Washington Post. Even when talking about Democratic accomplishments, there's a subtle insult.

And yes, it is possible that it could have been "just a mistake." But after over two years of commentary on the "Democrat Party" jibe, one would think the Washington Post would have editorial standards of usage addressing just such things.

One would think.

Growing County, Growing Costs

Getting a ride to the hospital for routine checkups and doctors' appointments may get a lot harder for some of our neighbors who need it most.

The Loudoun County chapter of the American Red Cross has ended a program that gave seniors, veterans and disabled residents free rides to medical appointments, one of several cutbacks prompted by waning donations and the worsening economy.

After three decades of offering the door-to-door service, the Red Cross board of directors terminated the ride program June.30. On Tuesday, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors will consider whether to transfer county funds to help a local nonprofit group pick up the slack.

The program had provided about 4,200 rides in the past 12 months, said Christine Birkenstock, executive director of the Loudoun Red Cross chapter. - LoudounExtra

The reason for this change is the radical decline in the local Red Cross budget, thanks mostly to a steep dropoff in donations.

The chapter's budget, $858,000 in fiscal 2008, is projected to be $486,000 this fiscal year. The group probably will be operating with even less money than that, Birkenstock said.

She said the cutbacks are needed because the chapter relies almost solely on donations, which have not kept pace with the demand for services in the rapidly growing county. Fundraising also is hampered by a common misconception that the Red Cross is federally funded, Birkenstock said. - LoudounExtra

Charities like the Red Cross and the GSA were critical providers of services in Loudoun during the times of economic growth and tansition in Loudoun, but now that the economy has soured, the County government is being asked to take on more responsibilities that were previously handled privately.

The exit of the Red Cross from the rides program is just one more example of the services that citizens need, which local governments are asked to provide and pay for, as localities grow and mature. Loudoun is traveling down the same path Arlington, Fairfax, Henrico and Williamsburg (for example) have already traveled, accruing responsibilities and their attendant costs as the needs of the area outstrip the capabilities of volunteer non-profits.

These "facts on the ground" will have an impact on our County government and quality of life for years to come. Some members of our community will rail against the new responsibilities and the revenue reforms necessary to make sure they're fulfilled and fulfilled well. They will seek the impossible, to return Loudoun to a time before tens of thousands of homes were approved and built and Loudoun's residents needed more schools, roads, police officers, public services and EMTs.

Other members of our community will comes to grips with our new reality, and make the choices necessary to ensure that Loudoun's next 250 years will be prosperous and sustainable. It should be noted that Virginia localities that come to terms with their growth, and make the local investments necessary to ensure long-term quality of life (roads, services, etc.) are the same localities which are driving Virginia's economic strength and providing leadership on so many important issues. It is no accident that Arlington and Fairfax, for example, leveraged their own growth into sustainable and progressive government and planning, and provide excellent quality-of-life for their residents. These counties chose the responsible path of investing in, and sustaining, the fundamental infrastructure and services on which prosperity is based.

Loudoun is a the point of making these decisions for ourselves. Will we invest in roads, schools and services so that we will be a prosperous and congenial community? Or will we go the route of NIMBYism and atomization, pitting neighborhood against neighborhood in a quest to protect narrow interests at the expense of the whole?

Into this debate steps a wonderfully informative and thought provoking blog post from School Board member John Stevens.

At the meeting each elected member was handed a sizable stack of information regarding capital facilities planning, which is drawing keen interest in at the moment given the conflict between the two boards on the acquisition of school sites.

In that packet is a single page that I am finding to be of particular interest. It is the 2008 Capital Facility Standards, which shows that the County has formulas for deciding how many of any given type of public facility are needed based on the county's population.

For instance, the Standards show that for every 25,000 residents there should be a Fire & Rescue Station. With our current population, that translates into 10 Fire & Rescue Stations. We have 11, so previous Boards of Supervisors have met that need. Interestingly there is a separate category for "Fire & Rescue Station West," one for every 10,000 residents. According to the Standards we need four of them, but we have eight. The standards also call for a "Community Park" for every 10,000 residents. That would mean 28 countywide. There are five. - Our Loudoun Schools

The entire post is worth examining for its detailed summary of what we need and what we have. It starkly illustrates the choices we've made in the past, and can make to move forward. At the end of the day, our spending choices as a community will demonstrate what is important to us. Is it important to educate our kids and provide services to our sick and elderly? Is it more important to tolerate a few more car accidents and hours in traffic so that we can buy a new car every few years and put in a pool?

In closing, an observation: Change in our communities is never easy. It always requires extra effort and understanding, it frequently calls us to re-examine our preferences and views in light of new facts and realities. But change comes. Always. Everywhere. It is the true constant of any healthy, growing community. How we deal with it, how we create room for change in our community, while retaining the quality of life which brought us all to Loudoun County in the first place, will define who we are, and will be for generations to come.

Loudoun's Traffic To Get Worse

In the inevitable consequence of the failure of Assembly Republicans to allow Virginia to do anything about the commonwealth's transportation funding deficit, a large number of Loudoun traffic projects have been placed in limbo. After VDOT announced a 44% drop in transportation funding for Loudoun back in April, the Board of Supervisors were forced to look at what projects would be effected. On Friday, we found out.

County officials have been forced to scale back their six-year road building plan to reflect a 44 percent drop in projected state transportation spending. For Loudoun, the decrease in projected state funding totals more than $16 million for the six-year period.

The revised plan, if approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, will reduce funding for improvements to Belmont Ridge Road, Route 287 and the South King Street Trail, as well as engineering and surveying countywide. Funding will be eliminated for construction on Edwards Ferry Road, Waxpool Road and Creamer Lane and for preliminary engineering for improvements to Lincoln Road. - LoudounExtra

The Belmont Ridge Road and Edwards Ferry Road project cuts will be especially difficult for people who live in and around Leesburg.

Under the original six-year plan, Belmont Ridge Road was to have been widened to four lanes from Route 7 to the Dulles Greenway.

Studies have shown that 16,000 vehicles a day use Belmont Ridge on average; that number is expected to increase to 26,000 by 2032. - LoudounExtra

Local residents know that the north/south corridors in and around Leesburg are in bad need of fixing. The Town has made a lot of its own money available to deal with these state responsibilities already, and it appears the Republicans in the Assembly are willing to abdicate those responsibilities to already cash-strapped local governments again. The most ominous outcome, however, is not in road construction cuts, but in maintenance cuts.

But funding for miscellaneous countywide services provided by the Virginia Department of Transportation, including traffic studies and enhanced maintenance, was deleted for the last three years of the six-year period. County officials said they hope money will be restored before any services are affected. - LoudounExtra

Road maintenance is always critical. And the cost of road maintenance has been at the heart of Virginia's transportation funding crisis.

Meanwhile, our Representative in Congress has been hunkered down and hoping the voters of the 10th District won't notice that he has done absolutely nothing to help solve our transportation funding problems. Perhaps Frank Wolf could have used some of his vaunted experience and influence to help the roads funding problems in his district? That may be asking too much, though. After all, he was completely out of the loop on the problems with funding for rail to Reston, so that experience and influence is worth less than a hill of beans these days.

The failure of Republicans in the House of Delegates to join a solution on roads money in Virginia puts all the Federal money for metro to Dulles at risk once again. One might expect Frank Wolf, as the most senior Virginia Republican in the House of Representatives, to take an interest in activities in Richmond that put a Federal project of such concern to his constituents at risk. After all, he has no problem sticking his nose in Richmond's business when it suits his political purposes. We might have expected Frank Wolf to use his influence with his own party in Richmond to help fix the roads funding problems in his district and put funding for rail to Dulles on a more secure footing. We might have expected that, but we would have been disappointed.

This year, Congressman Wolf seems to be too busy trying to raise rel-election money and echoing The Executive to bother with the signature Federal project in his district. Apparently, a quixotic quest to deal with tolls on 267 is more important than fixing the real road and rail funding crisis in his Commonwealth. Frank Wolf is hoping the voters won't notice his abandonment of their interests on this issue.

Too bad we've noticed and will hold Frank Wolf, and Republicans in the Assembly, accountable.

McCain, Viagra and Video

Boy, that headline sounds like the subject line of a spam e-mail, doesn't it?

Nonetheless, it appears that when John McCain referred to "Straight Talk" he was talking about straightening old men's...members, not honest rhetoric. Why else would he support requiring health insurers to cover Viagra, but not birth control?



Classic McCain, "I certainly do not want to discuss that issue." Well, that's nice. I don't want to go to work every day either, or clean my bathroom, but you know what? I have to. For a person running for President to think that "I don't want to discuss that issue" is a reasonable response to a reporter's question about his policy positions is an insult to the American voter. But it doesn't end there. He goes on, after a long, awkward pause (insert "long, awkward" double entendre here) to say, "I don't know enough to give an informed answer," and then promised to get back to the reporter. Health care reform is one of the biggest issues of the Presidential campaign this year, but John McCain doesn't know enough to give an answer to a health insurance question. In the epilogue of this incident, McCain's campaign did get back to CNN, saying they support competition in the health care market. This response, of course, did not answer the original question at all.

Natasha Chart sums up the ridiculousness of John McCain's position best:

Flat out, anyone who's been the parent of a teenage daughter has a considered opinion on birth control. And no one in McCain's age and income bracket, male or female, can credibly say that they don't have an opinion on Viagra.

The question is simple. His answer, unbelievable. - MyDD

John McCain: when he isn't flip-flopping, he's forgetting, and when he's not forgetting, he's ignorant. John McCain is simply out of touch with America and her citizens in the 21st Century. And if you don't believe me, watch John McCain's chief economic policy advisor call America a bunch of "whiners."



Yep, that's us, a bunch of whiners who want equality in health care coverage for men and women.

Leesburg's New Leadership

Well, Leesburg's new leadership is now in place, and Leesburg Today has a great summary of who is doing what.

Members of the new Leesburg Town Council met for the first time prior to Monday night's council work session to make commission appointments, as well as name a vice mayor.

Of the latter, Katie Sheldon Hammler, recently elected to her second council term, was unanimously appointed by council members to serve as vice mayor. Hammler will take up the position previously held by Susan Horne and, before her, Councilman Fernando "Marty" Martinez. - Leesburg Today

There were a couple of interesting Council liason appointments. For example, Councilmember Dunn will be representing Leesburg to the Virginia Municipal League's Community and Economic Development committee. It will be interesting to see how he squares his anti-tax views with community and economic development at the League level.

Meanwhile, Dave Butler will serve as liason to the Tree Commission and the Environmental Advisory Commission. With these roles, Councilmember Butler stakes out a position of stewardship over the environment and beauty of Leesburg, which is among the reasons man of us so enjoy living here.

Dave Butler will also be the Council representative on the new Technology and Communication Commission. The Technology and Communication Commission (TCC) takes the place of the IT and Cable TV Commissions as a new entity in Leesburg government. It appears that four former members of the Cable Commission have been reappointed to the TCC, so the former Cable Commission will have a majority of the membership of the new TCC. This is a good thing considering the number of unfinished items that remain from the former Cable Commissions, and the legal, regulatory requirements that the Town must adhere to in the Cable regulatory space. (Full Disclosure: I have been reappointed from the Cable Commission to the TCC.)

Councilmember Butler has an opportunity to help shape Leesburg's pending franchise renegotiations with the Cable TV providers (i.e, Verizon and Comcast) in his role as Council liason to the TCC. This is critically important considering the fact that the Town has had process problems in assessing and collecting performance fines from the franchisees over the past year, and the franchisees have offered only limited cooperation in other areas. For example, the Cable Commission asked Comcast and Verizon to provide contact telephone numbers on the equipment they have installed on property around Town, incase that equipment is broken or vandalized so people will know who to call. The franchisees have, so far, refused to do so, meaning that when their equipment is damaged, they only know it when it causes an outage or is reported to the Commission, who then reports it to the franchisee.

It cannot be disputed that Verizon and Comcast do an excellent job in providing reasonable and regular television service to Leesburg. But the franchise agreement, a contract between the Town and the cable providers, calls for more than simply providing TV to town residents. It is now the responsibility of the TCC to insure that all terms of the franchise are complied with and adjustments which serve the Town and its residents better are considered and implemented whenever possible. It is the franchise negotiations which happen every few years that provide the opportunity to implement many adjustments which are refused in the course of the previous franchise agreement.

The elections of 2008 brought on more changes in Leesburg than many citizens may realize. There is a new Republican majority on the Council, new vice-Mayor, and a reshuffling of Boards and Commissions. New ideas and fresh blood are good for local governments, in general, so we can all hope that Leesburg will continue to progress under its new leadership.

An Interlude: The Unsellable

Australians really are America's long-lost cousins, a little more fun, a little more foul, a little more risky. My colleague is from Australia and sent us this link:

The ABC in Australia has been running a competition where they challenge advertisers to create video promoting something that you’d never see promoted, for example, child labor or invading New Zealand.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/poll/vote/past.htm

The videos are hilarious, so this is your Friday morning funny!

Loudoun Abandoning Its Neediest? [Updated]

Last year, Supervisor Waters spearheaded the effort to prevent the Good Shepherd Alliance from opening a homeless drop-in center in Ashburn. After many protests and hearings, the GSA came to an agreement with the County that seemed to please all sides. The solution was to have the County take over the GSA's shelter in Leesburg and run it, while the GSA used its Ashburn facility largely for offices and administration, with no drop-in center.

(The GSA Center of Hope in Ashburn.)

Well, with the GSA no longer providing drop-in services, the level of service available to our indigent has declined drastically under county management.

GSA moved out of the Leesburg center at the end of June and the county closed down the Leesburg facility for a week for renovations.

Graham ran by the site on Sycolin Road a few days ago and said there was no signage on the building indicating why it was closed or where to seek help. When he called, he was told that services were being temporarily provided at a Loudoun youth facility.

More upsetting to GSA is the announcement that the hours of the drop-in facility will be reduced -- from 40 hours a week to 20 hours a week.

"This is unfair -- the county had eight months of planning and the implication was when they took it over they would operate it in the same manner. We've met our end of the bargain," Graham said. "We want the county to do its fair share." - LoudounExtra

In a remarkable twist of irony, a service provided by a private charity was taken over by the government at the behest of a Republican politician, and as a result, the service provided was degraded. This is a remarkable flip-flop with a tragic denouement for Republican Lori Waters, whose party so strongly advocates private charity over public solutions.

It's clear that the budget cuts of 2008 are the leading cause of the reduction in services at the Leesburg facility (Note: The reduction of services is subjective, see the Update below), but the lack of signage and direction during the building's renovations is just an example of sloppy planning and proof that Supervisor Waters never intended to ensure that the County's responsibilities were fulfilled. Aren't Republicans also supposed to be the party of responsibility and follow-through? Between poor follow-through and public takeover of a private charity, Supervisor Waters is selling her Republican principles remarkably short.

The GSA has been accommodating, forthright and just in all its dealings with the county and its citizens. The GSA convened an neighborhood advisory council on its activities, changed its plans in response to local concerns, provided regular, public updates to the community and did all of these things in spite of the fact that it had the legal right to open the drop-in center in Ashburn. The GSA has done anything and everything the community has asked of it, asking only that Loudoun step up to take care of its neighbors in need of help. The GSA is focused on helping the homeless, who are on the rise in our area, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that happens, including turning over its Leesburg facility to the County. The GSA gave all it had, and then some, to ensure that the homeless in Loudoun would have somewhere to go, only to see that mission disrupted by a failure of County foll0w-through.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Waters has taken to threatening the funding of this noble and dedicated organization because the GSA asked the County to fulfill their side of the agreement.

Waters also writes in the email: "If GSA or others believe that more staffing is needed, then the place I would first take it from would be the taxpayer funds the county provides to GSA through the regional organization pot of money." - LoudounExtra

In a move reminiscent of The Executive, Supervisor Waters sees a legitimate criticism and seeks to strike back at the author, instead of considering the critique's merit. And in doing so, threatens harm to the humblest in our community.

And this from the overtly christian Supervisor. Perhaps she should remember her gospel.

"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." - Matthew 25:40

[update] Supervisor Waters has responded to the GSA's critiques of the County in a thorough and compelling letter to her constituents.

There were (and are) five to seven men who used the drop-in center, and these men were facing complete loss of a location to cook a meal, wash laundry, shower, etc. Even in tough budgetary times, the county agreed to step in and provide services by reallocating existing resources, including staff, and we are following through. During the Board’s budget deliberations in March, the Board of Supervisors approved my motion to reallocate funds to pay for the lease of the Sycolin Road drop-in center. County staff worked with GSA to make the transition as GSA vacated the Leesburg facility.
In the last few weeks, GSA ceased operations of the drop-in center and the county took over. GSA immediately began making public attacks on the county. Accusations were made that the county has abandoned the homeless, which I find completely without basis. It was purported that the county was using untrained volunteers to operate the drop-in center. This is entirely false. The county has two trained staff members at the drop-in center: a case manager and a contract employee with Volunteers of America (which is the county’s contracted, trained, and professional operator of the emergency and transitional homeless shelters). It was also purported that because the drop-in center was closed for a little over a week for interior renovations that there was a gap in services. This is also not true. After Good Shepherd Alliance vacated the center on Sycolin Road, the county had to make some interior repairs. It was well-known since last year that repairs needed to take place. The county devised a solution to use a nearby youth facility as a temporary drop-in center. So again, there was NO gap in service, despite such an accusation. - Supervisor Waters

These answers, assuming they are accurate and there is no reason to believe they are not, mitigate the service gap and service quality critiques, though it should be noted that the lack of signage at the Sycolin Road facility directing people to the Youth Center during the renovations represents a hardship for any new resident seeking service during the time the Sycolin road facility is closed.

These responses, however, do not mitigate the NIMBY-ism which drove Supervisor Waters to an agreement to have the County government take over a private charity's services in the first place. While it is good to see that the County is doing its part to work with those in need, we must be vigilant in making sure that continues. Those who do not want a solution in their neighborhood bear the responsibility for making sure the alternative is even better than the original proposal.

(With a tip-o-the-hat to Living in LoCo.)

Roads Stalled In Richmond

My family drove from Nofolk to Leesburg over the past week, and traffic really wasn't that bad through much of the trip. Route 17 is a very pleasant and impressive road, would that Route 15, for example, were the same. I mention this because upon my return, my family was greeted with the news that the latest special session of the Assembly, called to deal with the collapse of the 2007 Transportation Bill, accomplished diddly squat.

Frustrated legislators spent Wednesday and early Thursday embroiled in name-calling and parliamentary maneuvers as Republicans and Democrats tried to blame each other for the session's failures.

The General Assembly ended its session at 1:32 a.m. Thursday, after the Senate killed a remaining House bill that would have diverted proceeds from possible offshore oil drilling into transportation. - LoudounExtra

There were three main bills under consideration in this session. The Governor had his own ideas, presented well before the session for wide consideration. Gov. Kaine said when presenting his plan that he did not expect it to pass as-is, but to serve as a basis for discussion and compromise. Of course, when it hit the Assembly, it was destroyed. The alternatives were presented by the Republicans who control the House of Delegates (drain the general fund that pays for teachers, law enforcement, medicaid, unemployment insurance, etc etc to pay for roads, and promise non-existent oil drilling revenues for future roads) and the Democrats who control the Senate (a slightly different package of state-wide taxes and adjustments from that proposed by Gov. Kaine).

All three options were pretty much dead upon arrival, with only the killing of each taking a lot of time. This state of affairs is not for lack of effort on the part of Virginia's Democrats, who presented dozens of different ideas in an effort to find something that would have traction among all the political players. The Republicans in the Assembly, however, would only accept a "my way or no highways" bill which was constitutionally questionable, and guarateed to only expand and exacerbate Virginia' budget deficits in the future. That model has been tried before, under the Gilmore administration when "balanced budgets" were made in the same way that Enron made "profits." Wisely, Senate Democrats rejected the Republican plan rather than return the Commonwealth to fiscal foolishness. We owe our children not only a better transportation system, but a fiscally sound Commonwealth as well.

The core issue over the past two years of Transportation squabbles is how to raise the taxes necessary to fund the transportation system Virginia will need for the next 100 years. The Republicans want to avoid raising taxes themselves, and force local governments (who only have the authority Richmond grants them, remember) controlled by Democrats to raise them. Thus, opposition to statewide revenue reforms and constitutionally-questionable innovations such as the failed regional authorities of 2007.

For Republicans, the transportation crisis is a political opportunity, by which they can force Democrats who are managing the most economically successful regions of the state and contributing the most taxes to Richmond's coffers (northern Virginia, Hampton Roads) to raise taxes for transportation locally, thus hopefully angering their constituents and giving the Republicans a political issue in 2009. Republicans are banking on Virginians not noticing that they are the ones who championed an unconstitutional regional solution in 2007 and offered only a similarly-questionable regional-taxing answer in 2008, and in the end failed to get anything done.

Democrats, on the other hand, came to Richmond in work boots and gloves, ready to make the difficult decisions forced by the state supreme court, and address Virginia's tax imbalances on a state-wide basis, while maintaining Virginia's position as one of the lowest-tax burden states in the union. It is critical to remember that the revenue reforms proposed by the Governor and the Senate Democrats would have solved the transportation funding problem while maintaining Virginia's status as a low-tax burden state!

It seems clear that the Republicans in Richmond actually want to run on a gigantic transportation deficit and traffic congestion spreading south from the Rappahannock and west from Hampton. Furthermore, the Republicans in the Assembly are willing to let eighteen more months of transportation problems to build, just so they will have an "issue" in November 2009.

Virginians are not stupid, and will remember who worked hard, and who stood in the way, come November 2009.

"The Nexus of Change"

Sara Robinson has a really illuminating and well-written reflection on generations, identity-politics and the Democratic primary up over at OpenLeft.

Here's a taste:

The real conflict that defined the choice between Hillary and Obama wasn't about melanin content or X chromosome status. It was about a generational hand-off of power -- a demographic shift that Obama saw coming, and Hillary did not. - Sara Robinson, OpenLeft

For an excellent precis of politics and change on the current stage,

Go. Read.

Is the Post a Conservative Paper?

There is a lot of complaining in the blogosphere about the Washington Post. In general, it's seen as the seminal purveyor of the conventional wisdom, and a repository for reporters who see Virginia politics as merely a stepping stone to cover national issues, rather than a legitimate beat in its own right. At worst, its seen as an echo chamber for Republican and conservative talking points and farmes.

This is not going to help them any in changing that attitude.

The Washington Post has named Marcus W. Brauchli, a former top editor of The Wall Street Journal, as its executive editor, the paper announced Monday. - The New York Times

At a time when Democrats and progressives are on the rise in our nation's capital and the surrounding states, the Post taps someone from The Wall Street Journal, the most widely-read Republican paper in the country, to be its next editor?

Have fun watching your subscription numbers decline, guys.

Lest We Forget - Words Matter

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

That's what we're fighting for folks.

In our America, we have to continue to fight for self-evident truths every generation, as those truths become evident for new "selfs" never before seen as ourselves.

UVa’s Weldon Cooper Center has found that 10% of Virginians are immigrants. The top five countries of origin are El Salvador, Mexico, Korea, the Philippines, and India. What must Virginia Republicans think of this demographic shift? - Waldo Jaquith

In our America, we have to continute to reinvent the word "equal" as we discover new numbers in our midst seeking, striving and hoping.

As the Democratic nominee for President, I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognizes LGBT Americans with full equality under the law. That is why I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law. - Barack Obama

In our America, we have to continue to defend those rights that are supposed to be inalienable.

Unchecked expansion of spying powers. A complete lack of enforceability of Congressional oversight. A lapdog press that actually can't wait to cheerlead for the collapse of all controls.

Has there been any point in our history when it's made less sense for the Congress to cede even broader powers to the executive?

In one last, great irony, you and your representatives in Congress are given one last chance to think this over: the Independence Day holiday. - DailyKos

And in America, we will continue to make those ideals ever more self-evident, ever more equal, ever more inalienable.

That's what being an American means.

Happy Indepdendence Day, everyone.

I'm in for $15

This season, I'm parcelling out my political contributions in small, but regular increments. I try to give what I can to Judy every month, and in the past few weeks, started contributing a bit of money to Sen. Obama. I believe that the time spent pounding the pavement and talking up our candidates among friends and neighbors has a much larger impact than ten or fifteen dollars here or there, but I know that those dollars certainly do not hurt.

However, there's no question that the dollars can help Darcy Burner, one of our superstar progressive Congressional candidates this cycle, right now.

Guys, as you might've seen, Orange to Blue candidate Darcy Burner lost her house yesterday to a fire. The tragedy has obviously upended her life, and she's struggling right now to put all the pieces back together. As such, she now faces a dilemma -- the more time she dedicates to dealing with her personal affairs, the less time she has to campaign and raise money.

We can't help with the "campaign" side of things, but we can help with the money side of things. Darcy would have to raise about $150,000 in the month of July to keep up with her Republican opponent. Us bloggers are going to try and raise that for her. - Kos

I'm in for what I have to give right now, and I know it's not much, but the thing about the blogosphere is this: we multiply little things by thousands (if not millions). And any number multiplied by thousands can be a big number. So if you've got room to stick $10 or $20 on your credit card this month, go help Darcy. Then, come back next month and kick $10 or $20 to Judy, and make a difference in your backyard too.

And if you want more of Kos, go read him in The Hill.

Who Will Be Vice-Mayor?

Tonight, the newly elected and returning members of the Leesburg Town Council are sworn in and take office. They take the reins of a Town in a stronger position than most, but with challenges ranging from downtown economic development to administrative reform.

The Council which takes office this week has a working Republican majority in the form of Councilmembers Reid, Hammler, Wright and Dunn. that means that it is likely the next vice-Mayor will be among those four natural allies. Of these four, the obvious candidates for Vice-Mayor are Councilmembers Kevin Wright and Katie Sheldon Hammler. Both are moderate Republicans, with a tendency to seek consensus, but a slight bias against an active Town Government when it comes to furthering cultural, recreational and institutional goals. This tendency towards retrenchment in government activity can be seen in the recent reform of the Town's Boards and Commissions, which reduced the total number of Boards and Commissions and made some residency requirements for membership explicit.

This reform, which was presented by Kevin Wright last week, and passed at the last council meeting, could be seen as a bid for the Vice-Mayorship by Councilmember Wright, since his was the last major ordinance passed before the new Council members take office. The ordinance is perceived as the kind of efficient, good-government change long promoted by Leesburg Republicans. (Whether it turns out to actually be so is subject to later evaluation, as we see what the actual results of this ordinance are in the next year.) As for Councilmember Hammler, she is known to be seeking the Vice-Mayorship herself from conversations she's had with many of Leesburg's interested and involved. As a result, unless some kind of deal can be worked out, a potential conflict is already emerging among the four Republicans on Council as of this evening, who will support whom in the Vice-Mayor vote?

The decision may reside with the Democratic minority on Council, represented by Council members Martinez and Butler, as well as Mayor Umstattd. It may be the case that a Republican Vice-Mayor is only elected to that position with the support of these Democrats. A remote possibility is a consensus vote among some Republicans and the Democrats for a candidate like Dave Butler, who ran as a Democrat, but on a platform of unity and consensus (as opposed to the anti-government platform of Tom Dunn, for example).

It is unlikely that the Vice-Mayor vote will have any impact on policies going forward, as the Council is a small, and generally collegial group. Hopefully, Councilmembers can put popularity contests like the Vice-Mayor vote behind them when all is said and done, and do what is best for the Town. Ultimately, the Vice-Mayor is a symbolic position, with no more power or influence than any other Council member as long as the Mayor is in the Chair. Mayor Umstattd has been a diligent and dedicated public servant in Leesburg for sixteen years, and it is highly unlikely that she will need more from this Vice-Mayor than she has from the previous holders of that office.

[update] Councilmember Katie Sheldon-Hammler won the Vice-Mayorship.