Almost two years ago to the day, ANTIbvbl.net was formed. We experienced immediate and continued success and have provided a valuable place for the expression of differing viewpoints while maintaining a sense of public decency and decorum. It has always been reassuring to observe differing viewpoints presented in a respectful manner. Clearly, nobody is going to agree 100% of the time on all issues but differences can be debated civilly.

For quite some time Moonhowler & Elena have been responsible for the daily operations of ANTIbvbl. During that time frame they have been extremely successful as evident by a 25% increase in traffic to the website. Also, the level of commentary exceeds levels registered on any other local blogs. Congratulations to them for a job well done.

I am pleased to announce the birth of a new blog, Moonhowlings.net. I am convinced it will be tremendously successful in its endeavor to continue to provide relevant information and a forum for lively commentary.

Tilikum the Killer Whale turned killer again yesterday. He dragged 40-year old trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water and killed her in front of horrified spectators. Yesterday’s incident was not the first time this killer whale has killed. There have been 2 other incidents, one in British Columbia in 1991. 

According to the Orlando Sentinal:

Witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the animal suddenly grabbed Brancheau by the upper arm, tossed her around in his mouth and pulled her beneath the water as dozens of tourists looked on in horror.

Trainer Dawn Brandheau was an experienced trainer and had worked with this animal many times before. 

Sea World says it has no plans to put this animal down.  Animal training experts were somewhat shocked by this news.  Other animals who kill in captivity are usually euthanized as a matter of public safety.  Lions and tigers, elephants, and other animals often kept in captivity are nearly always put down.  Dogs are put down.  Apparently Tilikum will not be. 

Should any animal who has killed humans 3 times be euthanized?  What should happen in this case?  Frankly, I am shocked.  I would think at the very least this animal would be returned to the wild.  It is unclear if this animal was born in captivity or not.

Huffington Post:

On Wednesday, former presidential candidate and Fox host Mike Huckabee pushed back at conservative bloggers who were “uncivil” about his recent decision to bring First Lady Michelle Obama onto his show to talk about her campaign to fight child obesity.

Huckabee’s show was the first lady’s debut appearance on Fox News, and there was considerable push back from viewers. “Some bloggers, it seemed, wanted me to bring her on my show only if I yelled at her. Or it seemed they wanted me to hit her,” Huckabee told a crowd in Wichita, Kansas.

The Wichita Eagle reports:

[Huckabee] said he disagrees with nearly every policy position of her husband, but that attacking people doesn’t accomplish anything. The viciousness of attacks from all sides, he said, are “disgusting … the anger and the meanness.”

Mediaite reports that Michelle Obama’s appearance on Huckabee gave the show its lowest ratings of 2010.

I like to bring Mike Huckabee out as a shining star every once in a while.  Huckabee respresents a decency I like.  Could I probably vote for him?  No.  He is far too conservative politically for me.   But I can like him.  Like goes a long way.   When I feel like I am getting too partisan (and Marshall-gate has made me feel that way.) the decency of Mike Huckabee restores my sense of equilibrium. 

Mr. Huckabee loves music and his band, the Little Rockers do a good job of highlighting artists who are not the stars of today.  The Little Rockers are building employees at Fox News.

We need more Mike Huckabees who always represent civility in politics. In many ways, Huckabee admonishes us all as bloggers also. As we sit behind our computer screens, would we say some of the things that come out of the ends of our fingers to a person’s face?  On Anti-bvbl, probably 95% of the time, yes.  Those who virulently attack others usually don’t make it ‘out on the floor’ of this blog.  However, not all blogs can make that claim.     Mike Huckabee is a standard we all can admire whether we agree with his politics or not.  Mike Huckabee is a gentleman.

So far the new Republican regime is off to a rocky start. It seems that  the Moderate McDonnell was really a cultural warrior.  I wish that hadn’t happen.  I was trying to support him.

Unfortunately, Marshall-gate has captured national attention.  He has tried to explain his words but having failed at that, he is now blaming  Capital News Service for misinterpreting his comments.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

After first blaming himself, Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, now is accusing a student-run media service of misinterpreting comments he made last week that suggested that disabled children were a form of punishment for women who had abortions.

In a floor speech today, the General Assembly’s most prominent abortion foe said he used a poor choice of words but never made the comment the Capital News Service said he made.

CNS is run by students at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Urging a prohibition against state funding of the pro-choice Planned Parenthood, Marshall told a news conference last week that “the number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”

He continued: “In the Old Testament the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

In its opening paragraph, CNS reported Marshall “says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.”

Read more…

Jon arrived a little early this week. You know, too much weekend.

Part 2 Rage Within the Machine – Progressivism

Another article people have to read for themselves appears below, therefore it is posted in its entirety.  We are not going to comment from the post.  All 3 moderators do not agree on the topic of abortion.  Therefore, we will not comment from the post. 

UPDATE:  Thread titled changed.  I just found that too offensive to have sitting there on this blog. 

From The Gainesville Times:

Lawmaker: Disabled kids are god’s punishment

 

February 22, 2010 – 11:27am

Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has spoken out on Face the Nation about national security and whether we are as safe now as we were under former President Bush.  Powell says yes.  Very little has changed under President Obama and most of the policies put in place by President Bush are still in place. 

“To suggest that somehow we have become much less safer because of the actions of the administration, I don’t think that’s borne out by the facts,” Powell said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Colin Powell also stated:

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was also created under President Bush, “and it is still under President Obama, working hard,” Powell continued. “Our counterterrorism authorities and forces are hard at work. Our law enforcement officials are hard at work. We have gone after the enemy in Afghanistan with 50,000 more troops, more predators are striking al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in Pakistan. We have continued the policies that President Bush put in place with respect to Iraq. And so I don’t know where the claim comes that we are less safe.”

Powell is a Republican.  He  shocked many Americans by eventually supporting then Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the presidential bid, ultimately throwing his support to Obama.  He said he liked and respected Republican candidate John McCain but he felt he was unsure on the economy and he didn’t feel Sarah Palin was ready to take over as president, which is the VP’s job.

Powell’s discussion on security begins about 10:00

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Powell reminds us of the need to search for compromise.  He feels our system is in some disarray.  Powell has always seemed like the voice of reason and truly a person of the people.  He speaks to  concerns over military trials over criminal trials.   Colin Powell is a smart man.  I always find him to be reassuring. 

It seems that our politicians get crucified by their base if they compromise.  The American voter has to get over this idea that compromise is tantamount to caving in.  If we don’t learn to accept compromise and common ground, then we simply need to begin procedings to divide the country.  It is absolutely ridiculous to never get anything done because congress fears that compromise will get them thrown out of office.

As a response to Glenn Beck’s yearning for another time, perhaps John Oliver has the answer. 

Jon Stewart and John Oliver seek to find the good old days.  They are trying to go back to those simpler times when life was good in American.  Could it be that those days simply do not exist? 

Stewart and Oliver both discover that the reason Americans have such nostalgia over the good old days is because they were children.  Most children had much simpler lives.  They remember the good and don’t dwell on the bad.  Is this true for all children?  No.  But somehow most kids are resilient and seem to have good memories.

For those who thought the 50’s were happy days, they really weren’t in some respect.  Your parents scared the crap out of you over polio for a while. Then came the cure which meant getting stuck with horse needles.   Kids also had air raid drills still where you had to dive under a desk and duck and cover.  The films about the A bomb weren’t so swift.  But that stuff only took up a tiny sliver of your life as a kid.  The rest of the time you could put on your zorro cape, Davy Crockett coon skin cap and have the time of your life. 

America is still a good place.  It might have its issues, its days, its not so bright spots, but it is still home and beats the hell out of all the other places. 

Warning:  Offensive language.

The CPAC has come to town. It arrived on Thursday. For those who aren’t card carrying conservatives, CPAC stands for the Conservative Political Action Conference and it has come to town full throttle. The list of key note speakers is enough to make moderates and liberals break out in a sweat:

Hon. Dick Armey
Hon. John Ashcroft
Rep. Michele Bachmann
Glenn Beck
Amb. John Bolton
Andrew Breitbart
Herman Cain
Tucker Carlson
Liz Cheney
Ann Coulter
Sen. Jim DeMint

Read more…

Al Alborn continues to share his thoughts on where America is now and where it is going. Hopefully, discussion will be about his ideas rather rather than about who filmed Al. No one cares. Trying to pigeon-hole Al into some sort of ideology doesn’t work. He just doen’t fit. If you want to sit down face to face with Al, let me know. He has indicated he would be more than willing to sit down to share ideas.

It is a relief to see well thought-out political discourse coming out of our own area! Mr. Alborn makes some excellent points. Interesting that he feels the Tea Party is yesterday’s news. How does the Coffee Party movement differ? Perhaps the Coffee Party will force the Tea Party to shed its extremists and come forward with some new ideas. It needs to move beyond sound bites, birthers, polarizers, and the like. I agree with Mr. Alborn. Right now the Tea Parties appear to be a risk to the Republic. Their object, heretofore, has been to shut down debate, rather than finding a place in the middle we can all build on.

Al Alborn’s analysis of some of our current national issues seems dead on. His ideas don’t fit into slogans and sound bites easily which makes them more interesting to discuss. I believe we will be hearing a lot more from Al in weeks and months to come.

A single engine plane has crashed into a 7 story office building in Austin, Tx.  Authories do not think it is terrorism but full details are not available.  There are people trapped in the building still.  Many people were able to get out, thank goodness. 

Structurally the building appears to be intact.  The windows are all out.  The impact was on the north side of the building.  Fire seemed to cover 2 floors.  The FBI building is right next door to this office complex, however they are saying this is not a terror attack.  The crash is about 15 miles from the airport.

photo compliments of myFox

UPDATE:  It is now thought that the crash was intentional.

The Governor’s budget recommendations were released today.  According to Governor McDonnell:

“All the cuts give me heartburn,” McDonnell said at a news conference. “All of them were difficult because I know that behind every cut there is a Virginian . . . that might be affected.”

Some of the lowlights from the governor’s cuts are as follows:

• $730 million in reductions to k-12 education
• Up to 10 unpaid furlough days for state workers
• Freezing enrollment in a health insurance program for low income children and pregnant women
• Increased employment contribution to the state pension program.
• Eliminate funding for the state school breakfast program for low income children.

Some of the highlights include 

On the other side of the employees’ proposed unpaid days off, McDonnell wants to give them a 3 percent Christmas bonus in December 2011.

He also wants to eliminate former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposal under which state employees would be required to contribute 1 percent of their salaries to their retirement plans in fiscal 2011 and 2 percent in fiscal 2012.

Details haven’t been worked out and there are definitely other programs on the chopping block.  The General Assembly now has to get down to business. According to House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem in the Richmond Times Dispatch:

McDonnell’s recommendations were welcome.
 
“We all are going to have a lot of tough decisions,” Griffith said. “Ours may not be the same tough decisions the governor makes, but we’re all trying to get to the best budget we can get with the money we have and all ideas are.”
 

Griffith also agreed with the governor about unfreezing the LCI formula. according to the Roanoke Times.

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, defended McDonnell’s decision to lift a proposed freeze on adjusting the state’s local composite index school funding formula. The composite index measures a locality’s ability to pay for its public schools, and Kaine had proposed delaying an adjustment to the formula in his December budget. Lifting the freeze will steer more money to Northern Virginia at the expense of other localities, but Griffith said the governor is right to propose the change.

“If we start saying when it benefits another region of the state that we don’t like it, then in a couple of years they may do away with it and we’ll be getting the short end of the stick,” Griffith said. “It’s helped us for 30 years. It hurts us this year. But I suspect it will help us for 30 years in the future, and messing with it and playing games with it in a single year is foolish.”

Much will unfold over the next week or so as far as budget cuts.  Most of us will be unhappy over something.  People will attempt to defend their own turfs.  In most cases it won’t always be possible.  However, these are tough times and we knew it was coming.  Feel free to add to the list in this thread as we find out more proposals by the governor or the General Assembly.

Hopefully Anti is a little different.

Editorial posted in its entirety 2/17/10:

Editorial from the Washington Post:

If Republicans legislators are irriated, what about the Democrats and the rest of us. When is McDonnell going to shed some sunshine on what type of budget cuts he is going to make. Maybe he will find that it isn’t as easy from the Governor’s Mansion as it was from the campaign trail. Why is he not forthcoming with budget information? These are issues Virginians need to know and talk about.

The Post is to be commended on its catchy editorial title.

UPDATE: The Governor has released his budget.  You may view it in the Roanoke Times.  Click the blue.

Governor’s Office