…since I don’t know when.

A fortnightly rant FL-S style with a h/t for no particular reason to Lee Michaels.

Oooh.

Fred2Blue readers have come to know that I am a noisy advocate for locally-owned businesses, which provide our community places to shop, eat, or gather that offer distinctly local character. Starting a small business is a roll of the dice for sure; some local storefronts hit the ground running and thrive while others hit the ground running then grind to a halt.

The past 14 days have brought some good news, some sad news, and some promising news.

First, some good news: My friend Dan Singh, the owner of Dan’s Wellness Pharmacy in North Stafford is about to celebrate two successful years in business.  Dan started with a dream, to create a place where people could get their prescriptions filled quickly - really quickly - and pick up otherwise hard-to-find “wellness” products. Two years out, and I believe Dan has achieved success well beyond his wildest dreams.  

The service customers receive at Dan’s is like back-in-the-day; he and his staff know their customers well, and provide a level of courtesy and consideration that - in the age of big drug store chains - is rare. I swear by the all-natural neti-wash products Dan sells; more than anything else, they have helped me stave off colds and sinus infections so well that I have been able to avoid antibiotics. And thanks to him, I was able to get a flu shot early in the season.

What is more, Dan’s is the only compounding pharmacy between D.C. and Richmond. For local patients requiring specially-prepared compounds and remedies this unusual service is a big deal. It is great to hear that so many of our local physicians are recommending Dan’s to their patients; their word-of-mouth endorsements are so important! 

I’m pleased that Dan’s business is thriving, that his hard word has paid off and that he has amassed such a large loyal local following. This is all the more remarkable given the fact that the economy is in the tank.

Then, some sad news: This week, my wife and I were shocked to discover that Amici, a high-quality Italian restaurant and pizzeria in North Stafford’s Doc Stone Plaza has closed. There was no note of explanation on the door, the restaurant is dark, and as of this morning the phones have been disconnected. Certainly, they are a casualty of the times; consumers are not eating out the way they used to.

My family and I have taken this latest development quite hard.  

You see, I grew up in Connecticut with a lot of Italian friends and enjoy Italian food and culture so much I’m convinced I’ve got extra-virgin olive oil coursing through my veins. What’s is more, I am a New Haven (Conn.) born-and-bred pizza snob that feels nothing comes close to Sally’s Apizza (pronounced “ah-BEETS”).  

But, the fare at Amici was excellent - very much like what I grew up sampling in my friends’ cellar kitchens - where their mamas and papas made sauce - or that I enjoyed while vacationing on Italy’s spectacular Amalfi Coast.  Amici’s wood stove-baked apizza, while no where near the gastronomic experience that is Sally’s, was still very enjoyable - I think it was the best in Northern Virginia.  What a terrible loss.

We had become friendly with owner Julia, manager Pavel, and the excellent staff.  In fact, before my term as Stafford Dem chair ended I made a point of hosting our 2007 election night party at Amici - a good night for us, a very profitable night for them.

People in the restaurant trades tend to be very emotional, if not temperamental. Food for them is artistic expression for the palate. They show their love through cooking. So, closing a restaurant like this one had to be like taking a loved one off life support - the grief, overwhelming. Julia owns another Italian restaurant in the Tyson’s Corner area, and we hope that it continues to thrive.  

Fatti bene, i miei amici. Fatti bene.   (Be well, my friends. Be well.)

And now, onward and upward: This coming Friday Feb. 27, the Stafford Hospital Center will officially open for business. And it is not hard to imagine what joy there will be when the very first baby is born there!

We have waited a long time for this day. 

In the nearly 12 years that I have called the Fredericksburg area home, my family and I have needed the E/R at Mary Washington Hospital more times than (we) care to admit. And while no one likes going to the E/R, many of us in Stafford County are letting out of sigh of relief that critical care services are now close to home.

Having our own hospital is the biggest of big deals.  And we hope the Stafford Hospital Center will be so successful that high quality retail shops and restaurants will open, close by, for that is how the county - and our region - will develop an enduring sense-of-place.  

And if the shops and restaurants are locally-owned premium establishments…EVEN BETTER!

At the final 2005 meeting of the Stafford Board of Supervisors, then Board Chair Gary Pash presided over the vote to authorize building the hospital center. After the motion passed, Chairman Pash looked to members of the Medicorp team gathered at the podium and said:

Congratulations and welcome to Stafford!  

A little over three years later, we echo Chairman Pash’s words…

Do You Know What I Mean?

It’s like the Janet-Michael conundrum all over again…You never see them in the same place at the same time. 

Are they in fact, the same person?

There are similarities in their color and font usage in their advertisements which catches my eye at first as suspicious.

If it weren’t for the name differences, I couldn’t tell them apart.  Maybe they are twins?? 

That could explain how he can be twice as bad as any supervisor who’s ever held the seat and how he’s committed to doing twice as much damage to the local economy as any other predecessor.

Schwartz told the FLS last week, “My term as supervisor is coming to a close, I think I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.  I have every confidence that the board will continue on the track it is presently on next year, and the time is right to take on this next challenge.”

And now he wants to run for Delegate?  EGADS!  He wants to do for Virginia what he’s done to Stafford County??

God help us all!

Posted in Bill Howell, BPOL Tax, Communism, delegate, democrats, election, George "Stalin" Schwartz, humor, limousine liberals, policy, politics, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, stafford, state, supervisor, virginia

May the video clips begin to flood the blogs now!

Schwartz, an 80-ish year old,  New York “come-here” of Falls Run active-adult community, got involved in politics because he had a problem with his new retirement house that he couldn’t work out amicably with the builder to solve.  1,200 other unit owners had punch-list items and managed to resolved all or most of them, but not George!

Bored and pre-disposed with telling everyone what to do his whole life and getting his way, George took his anger on a march around the neighborhood.  To his credit, he got results!  He rallied a few neighbors, until he heard the magic words that he longed to hear, “George- why don’t YOU run for supervisor?”

He was a conspiracy theorist, and the builders were the devils to blame for his senility and anger management issues, not him.  So he fired his group up too. They were just plain ‘furious’ about the impression that builders and developers were awful people and were somehow magically running the county from behind giant curtains. 

He won by a “mandate of the people” as Bob “do the math” Woodson would call it —of a barely couple hundred votes— in an election that also narrowly gave us the incompetence of transparently-NOT-an-Independent Joe  Brito, a puppet of former ousted supervisor David Beiler (a liberal political consultant rumored to be announcing that he want to come back as Supervisor soon.)  Zzsheah, right.

My what a motley bunch we have here now….

Focusing back on topic, George Schwartz’s announcement that he wants to run for delegate, let’s recap just a few of the lowlights of the Supervisor Schwartz legacy:

• Voted to increase taxes on all businesseswhile the country sank into recession (BPOL)
• Voted to increase taxes on property ownersand other citizens while people were losing their jobs (tax rates and recent VACO priorities)
• Voted to increase his pay by 25%
• Voted to cut funds for schools and public safety
• Voted to construct more buildings for county government rather than fix the roads
• Voted to confiscate peoples property
• As Chairman, orders that all public speaking be limited to 3 minutes or less from the meager 5 minutes
• Regularly berates fellow Supervisors and and occasionally the publicshowing little interest in hearing from anyone from the public, or anyone else’s opinion including experts
• Was quoted as saying, “The more lawsuits there are, the better job I’m doing” to the newspaper
• Dissolved the Transportation Committee (made up of local experts who advise on roads, gridlock and funding solutions)

…and all of that came before the upcoming budget and Comprehensive Plan!

What do we expect on the final Comp Plan? So far Schwartz:

• Voted for plan that would raise average taxpayer burden by 200%
• Voted for plan drafted by his appointee to the PC who has been reported to say “our job on the planning commission is to decide who gets rich, and who does not”
• Voted on a plan that would allow over 12,000 new apartments to be built in Stafford
• Voted for a plan that would grow county government by 450%
• Voted for a plan that would deny public services to county taxpayers while allowing wealthy out of town apartment developers to gorge themselves on profits (see bullet two and three above). So much for slaying the dragons –that is, developers.

 What might we expect on the upcoming budget?

• Likely to cut education funding
• Likely to cut public safety funding
• Highly likely to raise taxes to cover pet projects
• Refusal to balance the budget with current tax inflow
• High spending on law suit settlements without adequate funding to cover the inevitable county loses

Now I KNOW you have a gem or two to add to this list- please do so in the comments section.  This can be YOUR first act of participation!

View Poll Posted in Bill Howell, blog, Communism, delegate, democrats, election, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, George "Stalin" Schwartz, Joe "The Janitor" Brito, land rights, laws, limousine liberals, money, policy, politics, Press Release, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, schools, Socialism, stafford, state, supervisor, taxes, virginia, Wasteful Spending

If fighting for a new tax on small businesses wasn’t enough, having secret meetings with radical so-called environmentalists like Cecilia Kirkman wasn’t enough, then certainly getting your tax money involved in multiple lawsuits for completely avoidable issues ought to at least get your attention.  Schwartz told the Free Lance Star back in November, 2008, “The more lawsuits there are, the better job I’m doing.”

What he fails to ever mention is who’s going to pay for this arrogance!

Whether Bill Howell has agreed with you 100% of the time or not is something any leader with his length of service has to contend with debating, but ask yourself one simple question: Howell or Schwartz in 2009?

While FGS has an uphill battle to prove his abysmal voting record was good for anyone but himself, he could potentially ride the coattails of an extremely well financed campaign by VA’s latest carpetbagger, Terry McAuliffe, who has already pledged $100 million of his own money into the race, and could upset the balance of the election by simply out-messaging his opponent, Bob McDonnell, by sheer volume.

If you haven’t gotten involved in your Republican party by giving your TIME and your MONEY to fight these people and what they stand to take from your family and business. It’s 2009, or maybe never to act…. was the $800 billion federal spending bill not enough evidence for you?

Stafford County, VA is bleeding folks, and they need your help today!

From today’s FLS:

During yesterday’s Stafford Democratic Committee meeting, Board of Supervisors Chairman George Schwartz announced that he will run for the Virginia House of Delegates.

Schwartz plans to run for the 28th District seat–currently occupied by Speaker of the House Bill Howell, who was first elected in 1987. The 28th District includes eastern Stafford County and the city of Fredericksburg.

Schwartz, who lives in Falmouth, also announced that he will not seek re-election to the Stafford Board of Supervisors.

“My term as supervisor is coming to a close,” Schwartz said. “I think I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. I have every confidence that the board will continue on the track it is presently on next year, and the time is right to take on this next challenge.” 

…MORE

Posted in Bill Howell, blog, Bob McDonnell, BPOL Tax, Cecilia Kirkman, Communism, delegate, democrats, election, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, George "Stalin" Schwartz, money, planning commisioner, Press Release, Republican Party of VA, Republicans, Socialism, stafford, state, supervisor, taxes, virginia, Wasteful Spending

Why were Stafford Democrats handing this out Thursday night? Go to Blue Commonwealth and find out.

Newt Gingrich is coming to town for a huge reception, speech and dinner- fundraiser to benefit the Spotsylvania GOP committee and Stafford committee and YOU’RE INVITED! 

Advance “tickets” for seating and meal are required. Buy them at SpotsyGOP.com by making an online contribution in the amount of your ticket price (noting what it’s for on the form) or through the chairman via a check, and a seat to be guaranteed!  Come to our next meeting in person and buy your seats there too!

The date is Feb 12, 2009 at the Fredericksburg Expo Center (in Central Park, next to the Hilton Garden Inn off I-95 exit 130b)- Click here for the flyer:

We sure hope you can come to this amazing event! The food and fellowship will be first-rate along with the cause.

This is one of our major fundraisers for 2009 and our upcoming county government elections.

 If you can’t make it, please consider making a financial contribution in your absence.

 

Posted in election, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, Fundraiser, Newt Gingrich, spotsylvania, stafford      

No wonder BPOL is such a great idea for businesses in Stafford County according to George Schwartz, Bob Woodson, Joe Brito and Harry Crisp!  But don’t forget the two others who advocated strongly for taxes to be raised during a recession: former supervisor/current planning commissioner Pete Fields and Cecilia Kirkman.

Posted in Bob Woodson, BPOL Tax, Cecilia Kirkman, Communism, democrats, finance, George "Stalin" Schwartz, Harry Crisp, humor, Joe "The Janitor" Brito, money, politics, Republicans, stafford, supervisor, taxes, Wasteful Spending      

Republican Del. Mark Cole has presented a budget amendment to help Stafford businesses weather the recession — eliminate the BPOL tax for a year. Kudos!

Under his proposal, businesses wouldn’t have to pay the business, professional and occupational license tax between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010.

Not all Stafford elected officials are so quick to save you money- Supervisors Brito, Schwartz, Woodson and Crisp like the idea- no- they LOVE the idea of small businesses paying a tax that was originally made a tool in the tax box of Virginia back in 1812!!

Mark Dudenhefer, Cord Sterling and Paul Milde championed your rights to a limited government and reasonable low taxes, but they are outnumbered by one on the board by the four above listed crooks.

It was a TEMPORARY tax to fund the War of 1812 and was never supposed to be continued once the debt was paid.  Woodson and Brito can’t even calculate how the tax would be applied so I wouldn’t expect them to know the history of it. Lest we forget:

Posted in Bob Woodson, BPOL Tax, Cecilia Kirkman, Communism, delegate, democrats, finance, Fredericksburg Regional Republicans, George "Stalin" Schwartz, Harry Crisp, Joe "The Janitor" Brito, laws, Mark Cole, Mark Dudenhefer, money, Paul Milde, planning commisioner, policy, politics, Republicans, Richard Stuart, stafford, state, supervisor, taxes, virginia, Wasteful Spending      

The Stafford Democratic Committee Cordially invites you to attend Their First Annual Jefferson/Jackson Fundraising Dinner on Saturday, March 14, 2009 at Seven o’clock in the evening at The Riverside Conference Center Buffet Dinner at 7:30 pm Coat and tie recommended Entrees: Chicken Marsala – Sweet Flavor of Marsala Wine with Mushrooms and Pearl Onions Jack Daniels Tenderloin – Sliced Medallions of Beef Accompanied by Roasted Shallots in a Sweet Cream Sauce All Entrees include seasonal garden salad, rolls, steamed broccoli and carrots, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, dessert, coffee and ice tea. RSVP by February 21, 2009 by ordering your tickets here. Buy general tickets on or before February 15, 2009 and enjoy special pricing – these tickets will increase after this date.

      

Tonight, while addressing the NAACP’s 44th Presidential Inaugural Ball at the Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center, Stafford Democratic Committee Chair Marc Broklawski offered those gathered an historical perspective of Stafford County, noting how the “former home of plantations, and segregated schools, and Jim Crow would be a major contributor to the Obama campaign’s Virginia victory” and helped place Barack Obama in the White House as our nation’s 44th president.

Broklawski described how the county, which just four years prior voted heavily for President George W. Bush, yielded a remarkable 47% of the vote for President Obama, and 58% of the vote for newly-installed U.S. Senator Mark Warner.

He also reminded the gathering that in 2007, Democrat Bob Woodson beat the incumbent Chairman of the Stafford Board of Supervisors to become the county’s first African-American elected official and flipped that board’s majority to the Democrats.

The transcript of Broklawski’s address follows:

My name is Marc Broklawski. I am the chair of the Stafford County Virginia Democratic Committee. I would like to thank the Presidents of the area 13 branches of the NAACP for their invitation to join all of you this evening, and to my family for all of their support. I am very pleased to address tonight’s NAACP Inaugural Ball.

On this evening, our hearts are filled with joy while our minds race with anticipation of what is yet to come. We are dazzled not only by the history we made electing President Barack Obama our 44th President, but also by new opportunities, new achievements, and the promise that our very best days lie just ahead.

President Obama has chosen not to dwell on the past but look towards the future. In his historic campaign, President Obama exuded the type of leadership, courage, and level-headedness that Americans were so desperate for. As President Truman once said,

“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when the courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

President Obama IS that leader!

It is very difficult to try and sum up, in words, what this day means to all of us. But for me, three important themes come to mind: history, change, and service.

One cannot ignore the history made. And certainly, where we live here in the Fredericksburg area – the historical perspective and the political changes that have occurred - are all the more meaningful.

In 1862, just ten miles of where we sit today, the blood of tens of thousands of men was spilled in order to help realize what the founding fathers declared 90 years prior, that “all men are created equal…”

While no fighting occurred in Stafford, it served as a staging ground for the battles in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania counties. I spoke with a local history teacher about this period. Once the Union Army arrived in 1862, Stafford was recognized as ‘free territory’, and as many as 10,000 slaves swam from bondage to freedom by swimming across the Rappahannock.

Of course, that was just the beginning, and progress did not come easy for the next 90 years. It was not until the 1960s that this area realized real progress in areas of education and voters rights. While many recognized the change that occurred on a national level in that decade, this region has spent the last 40 years still coming to terms with what that change means.

For a 36 year span – from 1968 through 2004 – Stafford voted reliably Republican in presidential and local elections. In fact, in both 2000 and 2004 Stafford County joined other outer suburbs or exurbs in being among the-most-favorable to President George W. Bush.

In 2004 in Stafford County, Sen. John Kerry garnered only 37% of the vote. Through hard work and much determination, our fortunes have started to change. In 2005, Gov. Tim Kaine won 43% of the Stafford vote, and in 2006, Senator Jim Webb also received 43% of the Stafford vote.

The evidence that the tide has turned could be found in 2007, when Stafford Democrats met with great success at the local level.

Dr. Harry Crisp held the George Washington District seat that had been vacated by retiring Democrat Pete Fields. And of course, Bob Woodson of Griffis-Widewater District would score the biggest surprise – victory over incumbent Jack Cavalier (who at the time was the chair of the Board of Supervisors).

In doing so, Supervisor Woodson became the first African-American to hold elective office in Stafford County, Virginia. The election of Supervisors Crisp and Woodson would also flip the board majority from 4 votes Republican to 4 votes Democratic.

Despite ALL of those great successes, the 2008 election would be Stafford’s shining moment.

In Stafford, we had an unprecedented amount of grassroots support which included a lot of local participation and had people from across the state, across the country and across the pond – that’s right…the United Kingdom - knocking on doors, making phone calls, writing letters and talking to their neighbors. People were energized and motivated.

This is also the first time that we had not one, but two campaign offices for a presidential candidate in Stafford County. The work done by the campaign and many grassroots organizations allowed us to increase the number of registered voters in Stafford by approximately 12%. One of the reasons this was possible was the Obama campaign’s use of technology, which was key in that it allowed volunteers to connect and organize on a scale never before seen. While President Obama may not have received a majority of the vote in Stafford he did receive a 9% increase over the vote in 2004, but perhaps more importantly is that the work done in this campaign has laid the groundwork to support all Democratic candidates in future elections.

Perhaps the greatest surprise is that we achieved all of this with limited campaign signage. I guess when the campaign told us that signs don’t vote they weren’t kidding!

And while most of the attention in Stafford was paid to President Obama’s phenomenal election result, a seismic shift was happening in the U.S. Senate where Democrats picked up 8 (includes Sen. Al Franken) seats. And, for the first time in nearly a generation, a DEMOCRAT – former Gov. Mark Warner – would win Stafford and win it BIG. By a margin of 58% to 39%, Sen. Warner carried 23 of Stafford’s 24 precincts, many of which had voted reliably Republican in most of the previous local, statewide, and Federal elections!

Yes, the historical perspective cannot be ignored. Stafford, Virginia – the former home of plantations, and segregated schools, and Jim Crow – would be a major contributor to the Obama campaign’s Virginia victory. And fittingly, it was the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 13 electoral votes that would place Obama above the magic 270 mark and, on this day, help put President Barack Obama in the White House.

We’ll rejoice this evening over the history we made to experience this remarkable day. I know I’ll always remind my children how special it truly was to be a part of it all, but soon (unfortunately very soon), the so-called Obama honeymoon will end.

That is why, with all of that we have achieved and still hope to achieve, it is important that we stay actively engaged in our community to help continue what President Obama and all of us have started. To renew America’s promise we need to make an ongoing commitment to our community, whether it is volunteering at a homeless shelter, delivering a meal to the hungry, mentoring a child in need, or volunteering in our public schools. It will take each and every one of us to tackle the common challenges we face. These challenges are not Republican or Democratic problems, but are American problems. While government will play an important role in helping to revive our economy and address the many challenges ahead, it is only one piece of the puzzle. Government alone will not be able to solve the myriad of challenges ahead; it will be take each and every one of us working hard in our communities arm-and-arm with each other. With a new year upon us let’s all resolve to volunteer in our community. The change we fought for over the past year is all of our responsibility!

Now, as we celebrate this historic day, let us all lead and inspire.

Let us help President Obama overcome his daunting challenges and achieve his noble goals.

Let us wish him godspeed as we help him write this truly American story.

Well done, Marc. Well done.