George Allen's very rich contributors!

By: rdsws
Published On: 10/26/2006 5:40:25 PM

Some of the wealthiest people in America moved to an area, (horse country), around Upperville, Middleburg and Aldie in Loudoun and Fauquier counties in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, the MelonGÇÖs, HersheyGÇÖs, KennedyGÇÖs and others. With their millions and billions they bought up much of the rural farmland that our parents and grandparents raised horses, dairy cattle and planted wheat, corn and hay. They built multi-million dollar homes carved out huge estates, formed groups, clubs, associations, councils and a variety of organizations, (Piedmont Environmental Council, The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, Advocates for the Rural Crescent, and more).
In the last 40 years these very rich people have systematically used their money and power to influence local, state and national political, economic, zoning and all kinds of development issues in the area. As far as they are concerned it doesnGÇÖt matter that many of the Virginians who have paid taxes here for generations, built the roads and infrastructure can no longer afford to live here. In fact these very rich people have bought a lot of land and donated it to organizations for the sole purpose of preventing anyone else from using it, and of course they receive a generous tax deduction for their good deed, (the manipulations to the tax codes by these peopleGÇÖs lobbyists for donating lands is a whole story in itself). In fact that is exactly what these very rich people had in mind, not really to give the land to other people to use, but to make sure no one can use the land in their area.
These groups and individuals in these groups have also given coordinated generous campaign contributions to lots of politicians, all parties, at all levels of government, (local, state and national). All those receiving knew what was expected of them by these groups of very rich people living in this area; limit growth, traffic, noise, people or any blot on their vistas. Two contemporary national politicians running for re-election this year that have received significant contributions from these very rich people are George Allen and Frank Wolf.
Several years ago when Disney proposed to build a theme park at the edge of their area, these very rich people led the charge and bank-rolled the local effort to kill it. Quietly behind the scenes, just to be sure, these very rich people began to buy as much of the public stock in Disney that was for sale. A theme park would bring too many visitors too close to their area, never mind the number of entry level jobs or just joy and amusement the average person could have at a theme park. And if a theme park were built, it would attract other development that would be bad, bad, bad! The stock deal worked, they not only convinced Disney from the inside the company to back off, the whole thing caused the group proposing the theme park in the first place to get canned.
This year a regional power transmission organization proposed providing a new 500 KV power line providing additional clean, affordable, dependable electricity through the area in Frederick, Clark, Fauquier and Loudoun counties. These very rich people are killing that. Any new line would GÇ£deface one of the most protected landscapes in AmericaGÇ¥, (theirs). Never mind the new affordable housing being built or small business that wanted to grow. Since the very rich people have obstructed affordable housing on the east side of their area most of it is now being built on the west side of their area, unfortunately those people still need to work, which requires them to commute further and to the east where the jobs are, either through or around the very rich peoples area. But I think it is a good time to warn the executives of the power companies they should be aware of how the Disney proposal went and cover their back sides, the very rich people still have lots of money.
This year Shelia Jackson co-founder of Black Entertainment Television proposed developing an affordable housing project near Middleburg (Salamander Hospitality) they have led the effort against it. It would ruin the local character, bring too much noise and traffic. Never mind that the affordable housing she proposes might still be what most of us would call expensive. IGÇÖm not sure if BET sells stock but Shelia should watch her back.
Worse still, these very rich people have George Allen and Frank Wolf sponsoring legislation to create an entire National Heritage Area (no build zone) up and down the entire Shenandoah valley and along the state route #15 corridor between Leesburg and Manassas. Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership recently testified with Frank Wolf before the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks; GÇ£We want to bring our history and heritage alive for residents and visitorsGÇ¥, (translation; no one is welcome here except us rich people and their guests). It doesnGÇÖt matter what property rights we deny others; we are here, we have lots of money and power so letGÇÖs use it, keep development at arms length as long as possible, strangle any planned road development along the boundaries and tie up as much of the land in historic preservation and environmental issues.
These very rich people are not at all shy about using any cause to fulfill their personal agenda, (historical, environmental, economical, social, etc.). They have web sites and are dying to convince you that very serious consequences will occur if any road development or affordable housing is allowed anywhere near their areas. And they donGÇÖt care what the impact is on the average working taxpayer. Yet every year they will hold an annual horse show in Upperville, along state route #50, and use the local sheriffGÇÖs department to control traffic. Now I donGÇÖt know when the last time you called the law to investigate some minor damage to your property, but these folks have no problem getting two or three shifts of five or more officers, with vehicles signs, flares whatever for a week every year, (there is probably a very large donation to the local police association), to disrupt east and west bound traffic along a major state highway because they wonGÇÖt put their horses and the riding show area on the same side of the road, either all on the North side or all on the South side. They need both sides of the road so they have room to park trailers, set up pavilions, pitch tents and then cross the road to show their horses and shoot the breeze.
I only bring this up because it leads to one of the great lies George Allen and Frank Wolf rely on heavily to convince their constituents that they are working for us. They both tell us that they really care about the terrible rush hour traffic congestion and they are doing more than anyone else ever could to alleviate it. Think back if you have ever been fortunate enough to have been in that 2 hour commute from Leesburg to Manassas on state route #15, crawling along a breakneck 5 miles per hour, at night in the rain. Consider how these two honest champions are working that issue with Ms. WyattGÇÖs friends. The thought of making route #15 four lanes might cause her to have a heart attack and please donGÇÖt even mention the idea of a new bridge over the Potomac to the North, the sky is falling.
Now there is state route #50, it runs directly through the heart of very rich people country. Originally planned and designed (at taxpayer expense) to run four lanes from Winchester to Fairfax. Just like state route #7, which runs parallel, but not quite as nice as Interstate #66 which also runs parallel, all three roads are major east/west commuter routes. But a funny thing happened on the way to construction, from Winchester to the bottom of Paris mountain, just inside Fauquier county, the four lanes end. The very rich people have spared no expense at advertising that you should turn south and take alternate state route #17 a few miles (6 or 7) over to 66, donGÇÖt proceed through very rich people land. If you do however, there are speed traps, traffic lights any number of tie ups and unfortunately for some poor working folks lots of accidents. But in another twenty miles east, just past Lenah, route #50 turns back into four lanes.
The very rich people say commuters should use routes #66 and #7 and not #50 and every thing will be just peachy. But tell that to all the people already inching along in bumper to bumper traffic using those two roads at 6 am east bound or 5 pm west bound and you donGÇÖt need to be a rocket scientist to realize are two friends who really care about the terrible rush hour traffic congestion might be doing more to help us, if they abandoned their rich friends and supported building the rest of state route #50 as originally planned and designed! But the one good thing about this tactic is that it helps everyone to clearly delineate the very rich peopleGÇÖs boundaries and begin to put names and fortunes on the culprits. Very rich people who use the laws to promote their personal agenda do not like to be easily seen. Who knows, it might cause them to move somewhere else, I hear West Virginia is beautiful too and they need the money.
Affordable housing, I know there must be many terrible impacts on the history, environment, economy and social conditions in the area if more affordable housing was built west of route #15, south of route #7 and north of route #66? I know the very rich people have spent a lot of money developing wine vineyards, horse pastures, private schools, and very large estates, and donated large tracts to various useless endeavors, but? I donGÇÖt have anything against a person who has a lot of money, but when that is used to push a private agenda at the expense of the common good I have trouble. If they would just get out of the way and stop blocking any development with ginned up zoning laws, phony applications of historic preservation rules and environmental laws, a lot more people could take some of the pressure off the Northern Virginia area. Very rich people donGÇÖt realize when they use the laws to protect their private agendas they actually weaken the laws and all of society suffers.
So what do you say bloggers, out there for Jim Webb, Ms. Feders and Sharon Pandak, can you find exactly who these very rich people belonging to the groups mentioned above are? Can you provide the amounts they have given to George Allen and Frank Wolf? Can you shed more light on other obstructionist tactics beyond the few I have laid out for you, to uncover the agenda of these very rich people and how they are using these particular politicians to gain an unfair advantage to protect their area?
And more importantly can the three challengers issue some direct statements about how they will address the issues above? How will they react to the future offers of campaign contributions to come if they get elected? Without some wishy-washy, change the subject response we have come to expect out of George Allen and Frank Wolf.  Because we know these very rich people hate to lose, and if their paid for politicians do not win they will be looking to buy some new ones, after all they have plenty of money.

Comments



Interesting fact about the "Hallowed Ground" (lwumom - 10/26/2006 9:07:58 PM)
John Nau, chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, tesitified before Congress that he would be in favor of depleting our natural resources in order to preserve our historical sites. He also is a supporter of the "Hallowed Ground." Here's the link:

www.achp.gov/nhpa-testimony.pdf

AND, his daughter, Elizabeth Stepanian,  a "housewife", gave $29,000 to George Allen's campaign...in three donations...two donations of $12,500 and one donation of $6,200 on 3/31/06.  $4,200 was withdrawn on 5/3/06, and $2000 was donated on 8/29/06. I assume Leon is Elizabeth's husband, and I will do more research on that, but the contributions to the National Beer Association make sense, because John Nau, is the President and CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors, which is the Bud distributor for TEXAS. Will do more research on that as well. Here's the link:

http://www.campaignm...

The long and the short of it?  George Allen can be bought.



PS--this sounds like (lwumom - 10/26/2006 9:33:13 PM)
John Nau's trading off-shore oil exploration in Virginia for "Hallowed Ground."