… you KNOW it’s a slow news day at the ole Free Slant-Star when….

This just in… and it’s front page —above the fold— prime story news folks… and it’s “possibly” the most significant story in our area’s history!
( At least this is where stories like that *SHOULD* go)

No, it’s not an Obama pro-abortion appointee or his plans to spend 10 generations of retirement cash on his Wall Street friends’ new yachts.

No we STILL haven’t caught Osama Bin Laden.

No, it’s not a new business that sprung up in the area employing hundreds.

No, it’s not Spotsy School Superintendent Jerry Hill and his board of yes-men fleecing taxpayers for the fattest retirement ever heard of.

No, it’s not another public lawsuit against the Democrat-controlled Stafford Board of Supervisors for taking your property rights away.

No, it’s not another huge bonus MediCorp will pay tax-hiking VA Senator Edd Houck now that he’s on staff with them.

It’s not even about a marginally-newsworthy three-wheeled-Camry driving, drunk University of Mary Washington president on another bender.

Nope. “Even better, more riveting and fascinating”… are you salivating yet??

Are you READY TO HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN???

“CITY MANAGER TAKES LEAVE”

Nick Cadwallender screams “STOP THE PRESSES!” and it could be heard for miles, combined with the din of similar cries, as internal FLS gossiping from Dan Telvock and Karen Bolipata’s desks reached a level of fervor that nearly deafened Emily Battle before she could get the “no comment” she needed to make the story all the more interesting…. it got so loud that these rumblings set off tremors in the Earth— so much so, that Confederate soldiers rattled out of their coffins from across the street resulting in a breakdown of the very fabric that separates time and space itself, causing North and South soldier zombies to roam Caroline Street and dance in unison to Michael Jackson’s Thriller!  ALL BECAUSE:

A separated (yeah, still legally married) man told his bosses that he was interested in dating one of his 600+ employees (which he’s offered solutions to supervisory concerns) —and all hell breaks loose at the Free Lance-Star news desk!  [READ HERE]

Why?  The guy happens to be a city manager.  OOohhhh …  wait a minute…. HUH???  *YAWN*

This is the kind of life “rubber-necking” that, if it were a traffic issue, causes a 20 mile backup on I-95 for no good reason but leaves you late for work and really begrudged that all you got to see was a bent fender on a Camry and a cop writing a ticket for an improper lane change!

Does anyone else wonder why there are more Washington Post subscriptions in the region than the only LOCAL “news”paper?

Is it me or is this NOT news? But if it is news because it’s an employee-employer thing, is it front page, above the fold news?  Is it really our business what his legal status is?  Is the FLS going to report on every lead of every scorned ex-wife in the region? Why is the manager of a city any more important than the manager of a WalMart or Insurance agency?

Posted in blog, City of Federicksburg, Free Lance-Star, Phil Rodenberg, policy, politics, Scandal

The first is none other than Jeff Frederick himself! According to a lefty blog anyway. h/t to Darl Anderson for reporting that Frederick apparently said that if he is sacked on April 4, he will run again at the convention.

Rumors of JFred’s additional hearing-related questioning are flying about regarding an alleged and unprecedented $1,500 reimbursement per month for mileage he couldn’t have driven (and HOD also paid for travel reimbursement during the same period), and $1,200/mo rent for a space that he’s allotted full funds from the HOD and reimburses himself from RPV money for, and the unsubstantiated rumors that he was paid $500 per month to host a ‘coming soon’ RPV web page for 5 months, and the rumors that he paid more than $4,000 per month for web hosting and updates to a friend’s company to host and ‘maintain’ the current RPV web site.  All just rumors to be discussed April 4th at the executive-session State Central Committee lynching — meeting.

Now, a second candidate has emerged!  (why anyone would want this non-paid position after the mess JFred AND SCC have created, I have no idea.)

But he’s my newest Republican hero and has no known skeletons to worry about.

He comes from a simple all-American beginning, and has (unsuccessfully) run for public office once before in Prince William County.  He’s never been accused of being anything more than a bit  spicy at times with his interactions with Democrats (who can stomach him that is) which is good enough for my taste. 

 Though he’s quite healthy, his call sign was “Porky” in the Air Force where he served in several hot zones with distinction.  Though he’s not one for being seen in fancy restaurants, he can be quite a ham when you get to know him, but he always leaves you feeling good about yourself (and your political party) when you have him over for dinner which he says is his best attribute, “being good with a one-on-one relationship with each voter.”  We are READY for a REAL grassroots leader aren’t we?

His web site is not yet completed, but you can get to know him from the remnants of his last election web site …

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the more qualified – and much more likeable — NEXT RPV chairman…. [link here]

Posted in delegate, election, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, Jeff Frederick, politics, Press Release, Prince William County, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, Richmond, RPV, state, State Central Committee, Twitter, VA, virginia

Anyone going from the Fredericksburg Area- meet at 3:00PM on April 15th at Southpointe Walmart Parking lot (off I-95, Exit 126-b south on Route 1, first right into Southpointe II), south end of the lot- across from Longhorn Steakhouse.

To show unity on April 15th we are asking everyone, whether you’re going to the tea party or not, to place either a sticker or printed copy of the Gadsden flag (DON’T TREAD ON ME with snake) on the rear window of their car.

Here’s an example (feel free to use it or find another similar):

Posted in Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Obama, City of Federicksburg, College, federal, finance, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, Free Speech, laws, limousine liberals, money, policy, politics, Press Release, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, Richmond, spotsylvania, stafford, state, taxes, Tea Party, U.S. Constitution, VA, virginia, Wasteful Spending, Wealth Tagged: Tea Party

Posted in Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Obama, Communism, federal, finance, money, policy, politics, Socialism, taxes, U.S. Constitution, Wasteful Spending

… he’d be a Twittering toon…

 

What’s this about?  READ HERE

Posted in Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, humor, Jeff Frederick, politics, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, Twitter, virginia

Posted in blog, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, humor, Jeff Frederick, politics, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, state, virginia

… so it’s bad for Republicans overall when we eat our own, I’ll echo that sentiment. 

But what do you do when there’s such a level of outcry for the removal of someone  (like Larry Craig, Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer) and they just don’t get the message?  When they just won’t go away?  When they just won’t resign for the best interests of the party? When they put *self* before others?

WWJFD? (What would Jeff Frederick Do?) On April 4th, the special meeting of the Republican State Central Committee will hear this out line by line.  Will it be a closed door meeting?  No one seems to know as of yet.  It should be since it takes into account private business of the committee, but then again, it involves so many people that it’s hard to say anything will stay behind the door for more than 10 seconds … wireless computers being what they are today…

Frederick has a long list of accusations to which he’s responded verbosely to excuse all of them (read like O.J. Simpson).  Even if he were completely innocent (like O.J.), it still doesn’t excuse his handling of the accusations and it certainly doesn’t excuse the level to which he has stooped —in an election year no less— to have others defend him like Michael Moore does for liberals (and no less abrasive).

… for the record and to save me from responding to the anticipated inquiries- NO I didn’t make this video!
Mine would have been shorter and used genuine little people, but I still enjoyed this version.

Posted in blog, delegate, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, humor, Jeff Frederick, politics, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, state, virginia, Wasteful Spending

Obama’s “Special Olympics” joke: The teleprompter made him do it!
Pres. Barack Obama has been spending too much time with VP Biden and ended up mocking the Special Olympics in a lame attempt to make fun of his weak bowling skills. But of course, the White House says he “in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics.” You be the judge:
The first appearance by a sitting president on “The Tonight Show” may well end up being the last.
President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.
Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he’s gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.
He bowled a 129, the president said.
“That’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically.
It’s “like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.
When asked about the remark, the White House said the president did not intend to offend.
“The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said.
Way to go, Soul Fixer.
I blame Obama’s Prompter… or lack thereof.
But this is all just a big distraction.
Let’s get back to the real business of America: NCAA picks!

Posted in Barack Obama, Joe Biden, politics

WASHINGTON TIMES
Dumping ’smart growth’ is wise
by Stuart Butler
vice president of domestic policy issues at the Heritage Foundation

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

America is still trying to sort out the housing mess that helped trigger the recession. So far, most of the focus has been on how mortgage companies induced many modest-income families to get too deep into debt. More recently, attention has turned to borrowers who willfully took out mortgages and second mortgages to live a lifestyle they knew they couldn´t afford.

But there is another element to the story. In many areas of the country, Americans reluctantly took on huge mortgages as their last, best chance of homeownership. “Yes, house prices are incredibly high,” the thinking went, “but they keep rising fast. I must buy now, even though it will stretch me to the financial limit, or we´ll never be able to afford a home of our own.”

That kind of thinking fueled the housing bubble, too. But what made housing prices rise so fast in the first place?

One of the biggest culprits has been the fad of trying to control development by placing layers of restrictions on suburban land use. Going far beyond the traditional zoning restrictions, some local governments embraced a host of “smart growth” policies. But these policies also artificially inflated housing costs. So the cost of a home moved steadily beyond the reach of normal families - unless they got a subprime mortgage.

It turns out a better name would have been “stupid growth.”

I first learned about terrible side-effects of “smart growth” when serving on a housing commission created in 1991 under President George H.W. Bush. The commission´s focus: Regulations that push up housing costs.

We learned about rules requiring minimum lot size and how they add to a home´s land cost and give developers the incentive to build larger, more expensive houses on their land. We learned how communities use “smart growth” zoning to keep out more affordable housing. And we learned of “impact fees” that are supposed to pay for public amenities, but often serve as just an additional tax that buyers must pay at closing time.

We heard about dozens of such rules, all helping existing homeowners watch their investment grow at double-digit rates year after year, and all pricing more and more potential buyers out of the restricted market.

My Heritage colleagues Ronald D. Utt and Wendell Cox have examined exactly how much land-use regulations have inflated housing costs in various parts of the country. So, too, have scholars at the Brookings Institution. Not surprisingly, they found that housing costs generally rose most sharply (until recently, of course) in metro areas with tight land-use rules. In the “smart growth” cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, for instance, the median house price was more than 10 times the median income by 2005. This compares with less than three times median income in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; and Cincinnati.

Tight land-use rules in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of

In these “smart” parts of the country, families typically had little choice but to take on larger, often riskier mortgages to buy a home. When the mortgage industry crashed, these same areas experienced the largest drop in prices and the worst foreclosure rates.

The most recent survey of housing prices, conducted in the last quarter of 2008 by the National Association of Realtors, gathered data from 159 metro areas. Of the 26 metropolitan areas experiencing the steepest house-price declines, 18 were areas with heavy land-use restrictions.

If we are going to get out of the housing mess, it doesn´t just mean fixing the mortgage market or - as some argue - bailing out homeowners. It also means scaling back the rules in many jurisdictions that continue to artificially push up new house prices and fan the pressure for huge mortgages.

Back in 1991, the housing commission recommended that the federal government place conditions on money (e.g., mortgage revenue bonds) given to states to foster homeownership. To get this money, we proposed, states would have to negotiate with officials in their high-cost cities to change zoning, restrictive land rules and so on to reduce the growth in housing costs.

But those were the days when most people - including those on Capitol Hill - thought ever-rising house prices were the way to make everyone rich. Rather than push to ease restrictions on growth, Congress moved to loosen up the rules for mortgages so that everyone could get easy terms and go into debt, buy an expensive house, and ride the wave.

You know the rest.

Now´s the time to do what Congress should have done 18 years ago. As Mr. Utt and Mr. Cox say, all future federal housing money for states or homeowners should include a requirement for states to reduce or eliminate land regulations and other cost-increasing rules. It´s the key to making new housing more affordable.

Now that really would be smart.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/12/wise-up-dump-smart-growth/

http://www.heritage.org/research/smartgrowth/

http://www.brookings.edu/topics/sprawl.aspx

Posted in federal, finance, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, land rights, laws, limousine liberals, money, planning commisioner, policy, politics, Republicans, Socialism, supervisor, taxes, virginia, Wasteful Spending, Wealth Tagged: Growth, Homes