You’ve been warned!  The devil is gaining control of more souls every day.  With each supporter, one uniquely American freedom or benefit will be lost, while one more step in long-range plan of tax-increasing socialist taking of your hard earned money will find itself written into law.

“Progressive” is codeword for socialism.  Democrats invented this term and use it “liberally” because most folks don’t associate ‘liberal’ with a good thing, while ‘progressive’ sounds like a positive step toward something better.  …and it is… if your a Marxist.

Today is the sixty-fourth anniversary of the Allied landings on the continent of Europe during World War II.  I’m privileged to have visited Normandy and the cemetery where so many Americans who died on Omaha Beach that day are buried.

The cemetery is a beautiful place—a serene, idyllic Garden of Eden.  Were it not for the row upon row of perfectly spaced and aligned headstones, you might think of it as Eden with the gentle breeze blowing in from the English Channel and rocking the trees ever so gently.  You must see it firsthand to truly appreciate its beauty.  The cemetery itself is on a bluff overlooking the coast line where so many fell that day.  It is carefully diagrammed and sectioned so each grave is identified and visitors have explicit directions how to find the grave of someone they are looking for.  

When I was there, I didn’t know of any family or friend of the family who is buried there, so I just walked along row after row of white headstones.  Some were crosses.  Some were Stars of David.  All marked the final resting place of a young man prematurely taken as part of the terrific bill to be paid in ridding the world of malevolence and cruelty.  Each man was someone’s son, brother, perhaps a husband and father.  They came from all walks of life, from big cities, small towns, from farms. Some rich.  Most came from humble beginnings.  Even in fear, all possessed a courage the rest of us can only wonder about in envy.  Each man gave all of his tomorrows so the rest of us could have our “todays” in freedom and safety.

Not all of the fallen are buried there.  One part of the cemetery houses a giant, lovely granite wall with many (I don’t know how many) names etched in it.  These are the known dead whose bodies were never found.  The names of men still considered missing are etched in that wall, as well.

Every one of them have earned our respect and gratitude.

The world has changed a great deal since June 6, 1944–most of it for the better I think.  Most nations of the world are either free and democratic or are headed in that direction.  Facism and communism are discredited.  The Soviet Union no longer exists, and many countries once under her yoke are now members of the European Union and NATO.  Despotism is still around, but it’s definitely in the minority.

Technological and scientific breakthroughs have made our lives better, longer, and the world much smaller.  The internet alone has surpassed the space ship, the airplane, and the automobile as the most daring and innovative invention ever with its ability to let us communicate and transact business with anyone anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice.  I suspect the Star Trek transporter beam won’t be far behind letting us go anywhere within seconds thus rendering planes, trains, and automobiles totally obsolete.

What has this got to do with the men who waded ashore through cold sea water under withering machine gun fire that June 6, 1944?  Just try to imagine these advances under Hitler’s thumb…and later Stalin’s.  

I can’t.

So, as we go about our daily lives logging on, dialing up remotely, downloading files created a few minutes ago by someone on the other side of the globe, and talking with someone while driving down the road, let’s take a few moments to remember the thousands who died violent, horrible deaths so far from home, so far from loved ones, so far from friends and family that day.  Let us pause for just a few moments to remember their sacrifice to rid the world of evil’s stain so future generations could be free to think, free to create, free to build, free to learn, and free to improve the lives of generations to come.

They gave us all they had.  A few moments of silence to pay our respects and to say thanks isn’t much in comparison.

God Bless the United States of America!

Since Stafford Education Association president Martin announced some of her members were going to “work to rule” and not put in one second longer than they had to to fulfill their contract, the rest of the population has moved on to other things….like finding the money to pay higher taxes, higher fuel prices, higher utility bills, higher food prices,…..I could go on, but you get the idea. 

Sensing her “work to rule” tactic isn’t raising sympathy for giving an inefficient, bloated public school system even more money, Ms. Martin wrote an op ed piece in today’s Free Lance Star.  I read the piece and I have only one thing to say….same old soup, just warmed over. 

Not once in her article did she comment on the waste of approximately $1.0 million (that number is even higher when you add the cost to repay the construction loan and finance charges) to open Heim Middle School, a school that was built based on a lie of exagerrated enrollment numbers and will now be half full if other middle schools under redistricting.  Not once did she mention the waste of hundreds of thousands of dollars on experimental teaching methods like “everyday math” to our fifth graders.  If you’re a parent of a fifth grader suffering through this, you already understand this is a waste of money.  The only beneficiary was the “consultant” who won a lucrative contract pushing this nonsense in the schools after selling it to a “highly educated” individual in Stafford schools.  Not only should we be grateful for the privilege of  paying for  waste; we should do without in our own lives so we can pay for more waste. 

These are just two examples of a school system bureaucracy that’s taken over the education of our children and worked to install their apparachiks in  the school board….namely LeDoux, Reinboldt, Healy, and Mancini. 

One thing I will say for Ms. Martin…she never waivers from her message.  When times are good, she demands more money.  When times are bad, she demands more money.  But what do we get for it?  More and more inefficiency and waste.  More and more schools are failing to meet average yearly progress (AYP) in spite of getting more funding each and every year!  Ms. Martin and her minions are one trick ponies who’s only answer is throw money at a problem.  If that were true, the DC schools would be the best in the land.  Instead, they’re among the worst.  Ms. Martin and her minions aren’t bothered by economic realities because they don’t care.  They want what they want now and to hell with everything and everyone else. 

I hope those SEA members who do live in the real world will begin asking some questions such as if Stafford funds its schools more and more each year, where is all that money going?  Why does the annual raise apply equally to someone making over $150K a year who never steps foot in a classroom while teachers get peanuts ?  If Stafford funds its schools more each year, why are the resources directly needed in the classroom (where the rubber meets the road) always cut while hundreds of thousands of dollars go to pay for the stupidity of programs like “everyday math” forcing teachers to pay for their supplies out of pocket?

The SEA, like the Stafford County Schools, operates like a gulag where those towing the party line are rewarded and those who do not are punished by not having their contracts renewed.  We cannot depend on improving our schools from the inside.  That will not happen so long as the education commisars control the praesidium.  Right now, the Board of Supervisors is our one and only hope of keeping things sane and rational.  If we lose them, the citizens and taxpayers are screwed!!!  The SEA can help itself by voting these one trick ponies out at the next election, replacing them with responsible people who recognize the importance of working with the community instead of using “in your face” tactics.  I do not dispute the need for education, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be sympathetic to someone who tries to bully or threaten me if I don’t give them what they feel entitled to without the courtesy of hearing my concerns.

I see that the Stafford County Board of Supervisors have tabled the POTOMAC RIVER RESOURCE PROTECTION OVERLAY DISTRICT

This ordinance is really a down zoning in disguise.  It renders over 57,000 acres totally unbuildable.  Did the written notice that the County sent to property owner’s state which properties would be rendered unbuildable?  Is the county going to be looking at more future lawsuits?  What is inverse condemnation?

*          The boundaries of the overlay district don’t make sense.  They are not based on sub watershed (drainage) areas or any other geographic feature.  And a certain planning commissioner’s home is not include.. That seems fair.

*          There has been no scientific study done by the County that substantiates that these specific changes will provide greater protection to the Potomac River. 

*          The staff report says that this new overlay district will not apply to existing lots.  But it seems to me it might - when you read the ordinance, it says “new development” needing approvals such as subdivision or site plan approval.  It looks like to me if someone has a vacant lot, it will apply to any new development or redevelopment - even by right development! 

*          The County’s advertisement doesn’t mention that this new ordinance also makes the County’s Chesapeake Bay provisions apply to all lots within overlay.   Basically, this ordinance enlarges the Chesapeake Bay designation without saying so.

*          This ordinance changes specific definitions of environmental features such as intermittent streams.  Is it fair for the county to change these definitions in this ordinance?  At least if the change was made in the Chesapeake Bay section, the County would have to get the feedback from the State.  Why is the County trying to change regulations - why not leave it to the State agencies who have the funding and the professional staff to do the job right?

*          If this ordinance is adopted, it will mean that landowners within the overlay who plan to develop/redevelop their property will not even be able to remove a dead tree or even a dead rose bush without first getting authorization from the county. Seems like a personal property rights issue to me.

*          This ordinance allows county inspectors to enter private property within the overlay, thereby interfering with owner’s  privacy.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 Tuesday to hold a public hearing about implementing the Business, Professional, and Occupational License Tax; aka BPOL Tax.

The board will consider charging half of the maximum rate allowed by state law during a public hearing July 1. When would you presume the second half will be added?  Is this the spoonful of sugar along with the arsenic we’re supposed to say ‘thank you’ for giving us? Should we expect a press release from the Democrats who support this saying, “We cut your taxes in half”?

BPOL is a new tax to Stafford on businesses’ gross receipts. The counties of Spotsylvania, Prince William, and the City of Fredericksburg charge the tax at various levels of maximum allowances.  The Dillon Rules that Virginia is governed by already allow localities to charge this optional tax. Counties who have lived within their means do not charge this tax. Counties who have mismanaged their income and not planned for rainy days or over-promised socialized government services wthout the means to fund them, do charge these taxes as means of sustaining the bureaucracy.

BPOL supporters say it’s a revenue source that residents are ‘missing out on’. Advocates use the cowardly human student/children shield again by saying it will help ‘fully fund schools’. That’s code-speak for ‘we demand more go toward a system of wasteful management without transparent accountability or else we’re going to do less for your babies, even though you gave us more each year than the previous, it’s still not enough, there is so much more we could squander of your money still!’

The county budget ‘income’ is indeed declining due to sales and real estate tax revenue reductions during this near-depression we’re currently in.  Leaders are faced with either raising tax ‘rates’, raising tax ‘values/assessments’ of property, or finding something else to tax you for in order to keep the same cash dollars coming in to the county.

It’s simply a socialist-government way to think that you are entitled to money that you didn’t earn and have no way of repaying. The United States taxing system was NEVER intended to fund what it funds today.

We have to work MORE THAN HALF THE YEAR for OUR GOVERNMENT right now!!!

If we all signed the back of our paychecks over to the government right now, would he have everything we ever wanted? Democratic thinking says YES. Republican thinking says YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME.

Let me repeat myself: The United States taxing system was NEVER intended to fund what it funds today. Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the role of government in America. This is BOTH the Republican Party and the Democratic Party to blame ESPECIALLY the federal ones. The system is broken because the people IN the system don’t understand it or the Constitution when they make laws. Professional ‘BEGGARS’ (ie: wasteful bureaucrats) line up to exploit these weaknesses and get their pork-barrel projects funded on some coattail of a bill we do want.

The waste process beings, and the financial demands on YOUR pocketbook trickles down to the states (to fund federal projects like wars, international space stations, and funding overthrows of other governments, or just bad trade deals with countries that do little for us but take our money), and from the state to the counties (to fund state projects like bridges, Medicaid, unecessary school projects, roads to nowhere, tax subsidies to big businesses that in turn outsource jobs to India), and from local to YOU directly now (via property taxes, BPOL taxes, county decals, user fees, and again school funding of different line items).

I’ll repeat myself once again: We have to work MORE THAN HALF THE YEAR for OUR GOVERNMENT right now!!!

Businesses currently pay about a dozen taxes just to operate, not including all the fees, permits and tariffs just to get open in the first place.  Indeed, business pay more than their fair share already.  Also, keep in mind that any ‘payment’ the business makes to the county—any at all— comes from sales revenues generates by, well, sales that come from us, the customers.

Any BPOL tax is NOT a tax on businesses, it is a tax on Stafford residents and customers.  It is merely collected by businesses whose prices are now higher to offset their profits being lost.  Make no mistake- a business is not going to just ‘take it on the chin’ or  ’suck it up on the bottom line’ as advocates of BPOL suggest.  Business will do what they have to in order to survive; they will raise their price accordingly.

A BPOL Tax is a defacto tax on consumers. We are consumers.  The price of milk, gas, childcare, car repairs, cars, houses, clothes, coffee, soccer jerseys, school books, and everything else you buy in Stafford County will GO UP.  There is no alternative for businesses BUT to raise prices to offset their new tax if this is passed.

The Stafford Economic Development office uses Stafford’s lack of a BPOL tax as a recruiting tool. There’s a reason for that.  It’s a GOOD THING that we DON’T have a BPOL tax.