The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit group dedicated to investigative journalism, posted an article today on its Land Use Accountability Project Web page detailing the controversy surrounding the Loudoun County Public School system’s failed purchase of the Wheatland Farm property.
For anyone familiar with the local blogosphere, your next stop on anything related to a story like this is Too Conservative and the expected post from Loudoun Insider:
I’ve known about this for some time but have kept it quiet for the sake of the investigation. But it’s now public after the latest Center For Public Integrity article on the ridiculous Wheatland Farm saga was published this morning (link here, and a related article on Sal Cangiano here). FBI and federal Department of Education agents have been interviewing people for months about the slimy deals brokered by LCPS. I don’t think they would be spending this much time here if there wasn’t something there. We’ll see.
That we will. Keep in touch with both of these blogs for more details as they come.
Via Instapundit we have news from UC Santa Barbara of the development of a nanoparticle that can identify and bind with plaque in the cardiovascular system. Plaque is both a cause and a symptom of cardiovascular disease and can also lead to heart attacks. From the Science Daily article:
“The purpose of our grant is to develop targeted nanoparticles that specifically detect atherosclerotic plaques,” said Erkki Ruoslahti, distinguished professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “We now have at least one peptide, described in the paper, that is capable of directing nanoparticles to the plaques.”
This is a critical function of any therapy. It has to be able to accurately identify the tissues in the body that need the medicine or what have you while leaving the other tissues alone. This nanoparticle appears to do nothing more than that but the next phase would be to attach some sort of pharmaceutical to the particle and have it deliver that medicine to the site of the plaque. Perhaps it could be something that would loosen the hold of the plaque on the vessel wall, allowing the bloodstream to carry it away. No plaque build-up, no arterial blockage and that means no blockage-induced heart attack. As the Professor says: faster, please.
Via Bearing Drift comes this story about the Democrat majority caucus in the House of Representatives deciding they don’t want to even permit Republicans to bring forth amendments to legislation being discussed – amendments the Democrats could overrule with ease considering their majority status – so as to avoid having to answer to the People as to why they vote against common-sense legislation. From J.R. Hoeft at Bearing Drift:
While this, on its surface, might not seem like a big deal, it is. The power of the purse is at the very core of our democracy and is the basis for our even having a legislature. By telling the minority party that they have no voice in how this country pays its bills…we’ve taken one giant leap towards one-party rule.
I don’t believe there’s any excuse to put such a gag on an entire party in our representative government and it smells to high Heaven of abuse of power, either ongoing on oncoming. What could possibly justify this kind of action. Hoeft reprints a comment given on the link to Congressman Eric Cantor’s site that sums it up nicely:
In parliamentary proceedings, such as congress it is typical that both sides share their arguments for or against the proposed bill and introduce amendments to the bill. The benefit of parliamentary proceedings is they ensure that the minority view is heard. What has happened here is that the majority temporarily changed the procedural rules from blocking the Republican minority from voicing their concern or offering their changes to the bill. Instead of even allowing amendments to be proposed (which the Democrats could overrule with their majority) they are fearful of going on the record opposing common sense changes to the legislation so they change the rules to shut out the opposition and avoid the inconvenience of having to answer to their constituencies for opposing sensible legislation. This is extremely rare behavior in the house (in both Democrat and Republican majorities) and, unfortunately, this behavior is also showing up in state congresses across the country including NY and NC.
It is childish, unprofessional, and dirty behavior and will come back to bite dems in the a** when Republican’s retake the majority and decide to repeat the favor, if they choose to stoop to that level.
Indeed, it will. I recall very well the howling and wailing the Democrats put up when the notion came up in the Senate that the rules might be changed to deny the filibuster tactic on judicial nominees and require an up-or-down vote. The minority must be allowed their say, we were told, and the filibuster must be permitted so the minority can exercise some kind of real, tangible effect on the matter. If the Republicans didn’t allow the practice to continue, we were warned ominously, we would regret it seriously in the years to come.
So where are those concerns now? This isn’t a matter of giving a real, living person who happens to be a nominee for a judicial position the courtesy of a decision made so they can either get on with the job or get on with their lives. This is the core function of the House of Representatives: the debate over legislation. And the Democrats have simply decided they don’t want to have to deal with amendments offered by the opposition party. And lest anyone advance the notion that the Democrats were forced to this decision to keep the debate appropriately limited in length, here’s Congressman Eric Cantor on the floor discussing the matter on the record:
I believe Congressman Cantor is quite correct. This direction was planned for all along. When the tide turns – and it will turn faster than they think – I’ll be in no mood to cut the Democrats any slack on the matter and I’ll make sure my representatives know that.
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