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Makeup Tips for College Girls – Daytime Written by Zephyr – CF Editor 29 Comments Photo by rent-a-moose I’ve had a few people ask me recently for some makeup tips for college, and thought I’d write an article about it … Continue reading →

This is what the human detritus who public Wikileaks are aiming for.

The Other McCain notes the rise of conservative blogs in Technorati's political rankings.
Huffington Post has dropped from number one, replaced by Hot Air.
But outside the top guns, how do you find where others rank in the political rankings? I tried random searching.
I found FromonHigh on page 25, at 582 in the nation. SWACgirl is on page 35 at 842.
There's 312 pages on the site, too many to check. I gave up at page 45. Maybe I'll think about more later.

I will admit without reservation that I love Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - I guess I identify with the otherness of the vampires and the homoerotic undertones as well. I have enjoyed her son Christopher Rice's books as well, especially A Density of Souls. I have not read Anne Rice's more recent books, but suspect that like the Vampire Chronicles a theme of spirituality is present in them as well. Now, as a number of blogs have reported, Rice has announced that she has quit being a Christian. Why, because more and more the name Christian applies to those who act like the Pharisees in the Gospels and act in an overall manner that is diametrically opposed to the theme of love of neighbor. Today's professional Christians are more easily defined by who they hate - which is almost everyone be they gay, black, Hispanic, of foreign birth, non-Christian, etc. I very much feel as Rice does. If the Christian Right and the Catholic Church hierarchy exemplify those who are Christian, then count me out too. I guess the big question is what do those like Rice, myself and others who want to relationship with "Christians" call ourselves? Here are some highlights from Box Turtle Bulletin that look at Rice's statements:
*
But her embrace of Catholicism was of a personal and spiritual nature, and as is not unusual among Catholics, didn’t extend to social issues: Her views will not please all of the devout. Rice favors gay marriage. She believes the church position regarding birth control is a grievous error that is not supported by Scripture. She repudiates what she sees as intolerant, “sex-obsessed” church leaders, and says she does not find support in the message of Jesus for their focus on sexual orientation or abortion. She argues for a more inclusive church.
*
“Think of how the church bells would ring and the pews would fill if women could become priests and priests could marry. It would be the great resurgence of the Catholic Church in this country.”

But Rice was ultimately unable to reconcile her belief in Christ on the one hand, with the actions of fellow Christians and how those actions have stained the Christian “brand” on the other. She appears to have hinted at this with this post on her facebook page which appeared on Tuesday: Gandhi famously said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” When does a word (Christian)become unusable? When does it become so burdened with history and horror that it cannot be evoked without destructive controversy?
*
She answered her question yesterday morning, when she posted this to her facebook page: For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.
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As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.
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Rice is 100% on the money in my view. So again, what do we call ourselves so as to not be confused with those who have made Christianity something vile and evil?

To listen to Senator Jim Webb and Elaine Donnelly, Tony Perkins and other professional Christians whose main purpose in life seems to denigrate and malign LGBT citizens, the repeal of DADT is supposedly a huge issue with straight service members. Indeed, it is claimed that they might flee in droves if gays are allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military. The funny thing is, however, that only 10% of recipients of the Pentagon's homophobic survey have even bothered to respond to the survey. For something that the demagogues describe as a big deal, that behavior would seem bizarre. Unless, in truth, most members of the military are indifferent to the proposal to end DADT. After all, most already know gay servicemembers and even 56% of Republicans favor repealing DADT. It all shows - in my view - that only (1) the parasites of the Christian Right shilling for money and (2) the spineless Congressional Democrats and the White House seem to be paying attention to the doom and gloom predictions of mass non-re enlistments and other slanderous lies being spread against gay servicemembers. Here are some highlights from Stars and Stripes:
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Only about 10 percent of the 400,000 "don't ask, don't tell" surveys sent out three weeks ago have been returned, and Pentagon officials are lobbying troops to fill out the rest before the Aug. 15 deadline set for the research.
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[G]ay rights groups have questioned the value of the survey, and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network warned closeted gay troops against participating in the exercise. Even though the survey will be conducted by e-mail through an outside contractor, SLDN officials said that promise of anonymity didn’t offer enough security for troops who still could be kicked out under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.
*
Defense officials could not say whether that negative reaction has hurt response rates, but are urging everyone who received the survey to fill it out. A similar survey will be sent out to 150,000 military family members next month.
*
In May, both the House and a Senate panel voted for a delayed repeal of the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" law, allowing gay troops to serve openly after the president and Pentagon leaders certify a yearlong study into the effects on the force. The full Senate still has not passed the measure, but is expected to take up debate on the issue in September.

At Ace of Spades we find a link to a TIME magazine article which - while it calls Rush "obnoxious anti-environmentalist" - has admitted that Rush is right about the extent of the environmental effects of the Gulf oil spill.

Limbaugh has a point. The Deepwater Horizon explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, ...But so far ... it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. "The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared," says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana.
Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the number killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 21 years ago. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but so far, wildlife-response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but so far, assessment teams have found only about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year.

Now, the despicable bottom feeding scumbag Michael Grunwald no doubt used Limbaugh's name simply to call Rush obnoxious, but we wonder why a government lapdog like TIME would carry a story like this.  And then it occurs to me that this is one way of taking the heat off Obama because it's now no longer possible to pretend that Team Obama acted competently after the well blew up.  So if the spill is now big deal, Obama's failure is no big deal.
It's the new media theme, if Team Obama screws up "X," "X" is no big deal.

Via Vanderleun

Greece has disappeared from the headlines since Greek Communists stopped burning people alive.  But Greece has not disappeared.

It might have disappeared from the notoriously parochial British media, but it is still there – Greece, that is. And their problems have not been resolved. In fact, they seem to be getting worse. The current round of troubles started a few days ago when the nation's lorry drivers announced their intention to go on indefinite strike today over plans to open up their sector to new licenses, opening up the transport business to new entrants.

Via Belmont Club

CBS News reports that Times of London reporters “scanning the [Wikileaks] reports for just a couple hours found hundreds of Afghan names mentioned as aiding the U.S.-led war effort.”
Recently Radio Netherlands described what Afghans who are suspected by the Taliban can expect to endure. The Taliban have cut off the hands of construction workers who build government-funded projects; sent a suicide car bomb against a district chief believed to have been working with US special forces. Death in many forms will be their lot. One informant Radio Netherlands described “holds a thick yellow sheet tightly around his face” to preserve his anonymity. Now it turns out he shouldn’t have bothered. If the London Times is right, his name might be one of the several hundred the British reporter has found in just a few hours.
Yet the dead are the lucky ones. The more unfortunate may wind up in a torture chamber similar to one found by Coldstream Guards. It features such amenities as chains to hang prisoners from walls. Not that the inmates would want to walk on the floor: that features broken glass. And there is limb amputation, kneecapping with an electric drill, eye gouging, bone-breaking or ritual rape to smash the will. Where the offender is not himself available punishment will be visited on his relatives.

It would be cosmic justice if a son or daughter of one of those Afghans who dies as a result of Julian Assange's self absorbed obsession were to hunt down and kill this little bastard, slowly and painfully.  I, for one, would not mourn.

Could there be some sort of statewide ambition planned, especially with an opening at the LG position?

She raked in $128,229 in the first six months of this year, second only to Dick Saslaw.  Damn. 

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) have developed the 2035 Virginia Surface Transportation Plan, which provides long-term multimodal transportation suggestions for the commonwealth. The draft plan is available for public review and comment beginning June 16, 2010, and concluding July 30, 2010.
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More at Office of Intermodal Planning & Investment
http://www.vtrans.org/2035_surface_plan.asp

I wouldn’t have expected Judge Andrew Napolitano to be a huge standout at last week’s RightOnline conference, be he absolutely knocked it out of the park with this speech. This has got to be one of the most powerful defenses of our Constitution and Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties I’ve ever heard presented. 

Videos of all the speeches can be found here. I highly recommend watching Mike Pence, Michelle Bachman and Herman Cain also.

The only argument the left can apparently bring to bear against the Tea Party movement is that it’s a bunch of uneducated, incompetent white racists who want to return America to the days of segregation and slavery. To highlight the utter ridiculousness of such drivel, which is quite evidently a tacit admission that the left simply can’t debate the issues, I bring you this supposed racist by the name of Herman Cain who spoke at Americans For Prosperity’s RightOnline conference last weekend.

Let’s just see the left try to throw the unenlightened racist smear at this guy.

Out of ammo, lefties?  That racism tar-brush not working?  How about you bother to address the issues for a change then, rather than try to shut down the debate by calling everyone who doesn’t agree with you a bigot.

Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart released his draft of the Rule of Law Act today, and immediately members of the House of Delegates pledged to introduce it during next year’s session of the General Assembly.  Despite the ongoing and inevitable (given the current Administration in Washington) legal wranglings that are tying up SB 1070 in Arizona, there’s hope that Virginia will move ahead to protect taxpayers, legal workers, honest businesses and our community, all of which suffer from the impacts of illegal immigration and those who profit by perpetuating the state of rampant lawlessness it creates. (more…)

I just got word from a producer of Deer & Deer Hunting TV that my interview is going to air on the Versus channel this Saturday, July 31st at 9 am ET.

Unfortunately I will not be able to watch, since I don't have cable or satellite at home.

This is an interesting moment to observe because as far as I know this will be the first time that the locavore hunting movement has been formally introduced to the traditional American deer hunting culture. These are two groups that seem very different, yet can be beneficial to each other. I am surprised that this is happening through a TV show rather than a piece in Field & Stream or a similar mainstream hunting publication.

There's no telling what the mainstream hunting culture is going to make of us. Some of them might be suspicious of us, others contemptuous of our odd methods. My hope is that we will be seen as complimentary to mainstream hunting. With our focus on meat-hunting, we tend to shoot does rather than bucks and we may take of some of the pressure off of trophy hunters to cull does while happily leaving the trophy bucks to them.

[The photo is me, speaking to a group of aspiring locavore hunters in NYC]

My cousin in Pennsylvania must have been hungry when she snapped this picture.
That's not a triangle, that's a Doritos.

Rockingham Memorial Hospital announced Thursday that they will “affiliate” with Norfolk-based Sentara, which operates eight hospitals, and more than 100 “care giving sites” in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. For RMH, this deal would end a nearly 100-year-run as an independent health organization in the Valley.

According to an official statement issued by RMH, the decision is at least in part economical.

The boards of directors of both organizations have signed a letter of intent that paves the way to move negotiations forward, according to RMH officials . . .

“We chose to affiliate with Sentara because it is, like RMH, a not-for-profit organization committed to delivering high-quality, community-based healthcare,” [said RMH Board Chair Barbara B. Stoltzfus]. “In addition, a large, integrated system like Sentara offers services, technology and financial strength that we simply cannot achieve as an independent hospital in such a turbulent healthcare environment.”

Both RMH and Sentara are not-for-profit organizations. Sentara also owns insurance company Optima Health.

The deal is expected to become official “in the first months of 2011.”

Cheryl Simmons, who circulated and signed off on 123 pages of signatures to a petition to get a change of government in Arlington County on the November ballot, is a felon and therefore not eligible to vote, the county said today. Only residents able to register to vote are permitted to collect signatures for ballot initiatives, according to county law. More than 2,200 signatures on Simmons's pages had to be disqualified, bringing the total number of verified signatures to 10,815. The petition needed 14,350 signatures to get the change of government issue on the ballot. Lindberg said she was in the final stages of validating the more than 16,000 signatures turned in two weeks ago when she learned, through Virginia law enforcement officials and the State Board of Elections, that Simmons had been convicted of embezzlement charges and had previous convictions that had been downgraded. The change-of-government petition was an


Virginia - Initiative - Government - Petition - Law

The flawed and weak Senate bill, like most of the Senate's pathetic legislative efforts, deserved to be buried.

Time to go back to the drawing boards on a climate change bill, and this time to heed the following warnings.

I wrote this in FYII recently: "Greed and cowardice killed action on climate change; however, "if anything is deserving of blame, it is the cap and trade strategy itself."

Now EPA employees are raising their voices about the flawed climate bills in Congress.

From the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

"The major bills before Congress to regulate greenhouse gases to combat global climate change suffer from “multiple unfixable flaws” that undermine their effectiveness, according to a detailed congressional disclosure by two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). These agency experts’ unofficial protest is also testing new agency guidelines on employee free speech rights following EPA’s order last fall that the two employees remove a YouTube video they had produced on the frailties of cap-and-trade.

"The two EPA employees, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, are enforcement attorneys speaking as private citizens. They contend that the integrity failings of greenhouse gas offsets, the lynchpin for major climate bills before Congress, ensure that such legislation will be an ineffective – and deceptive – waste of funds. Specifically, they argue that:

• The complexity and subjectivity of offsets renders them impossible to certify, regulate or enforce;
• There is no reliable way to distinguish offset projects which will occur because of the offset incentive from those which would have happened anyway;
• In some cases, such as in the context of forestry projects, the offsets will fail to appreciably mitigate demand and the polluting activity (such as logging) will simply shift elsewhere; and
• The offsets will create perverse incentives to keep polluting activities legal so they can keep being sold as offsets.

"Williams and Zabel assert that these offsets, in essence, are a new “creative financial instrument” which carries the same deceptive potential to bankrupt markets as did the creative instruments peddled on Wall Street. The two ask for a congressional probe into the reliability of any offset program before enactment."

In June, 2009, Rachel Morris wrote at Mother Jones about the potential for cap and trade, carbon derivatives to cause another market meltdown.

"If the Waxman-Markey climate bill is signed into law, it will generate, almost as an afterthought, a new market for carbon derivatives. That market will be vast, complicated, and dauntingly difficult to monitor. And if Washington doesn't get the rules right, it will be vulnerable to speculation and manipulation by the very same players who brought us the financial meltdown.

"Cap and trade would create what Commodity Futures Trading commissioner Bart Chilton anticipates as a $2 trillion market, "the biggest of any [commodities] derivatives product in the next five years."

"In addition to trading the allowances and offsets themselves, participants in carbon markets can also deal in their derivatives—such as futures contracts to deliver a certain number of allowances at an agreed price and time. These instruments will be traded not only by polluters that need to buy credits to comply with environmental regulations, but also by financial services firms......"We are on the verge of creating a new trillion-dollar market in financial assets that will be securitized, derivatized, and speculated by Wall Street like the mortgage-backed securities market," says Robert Shapiro, a former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration and a cofounder of the US Climate Task Force.

"Among environmental groups, there is, understandably, less focus on the finer points of financial regulation. "The derivatives side is not something that a person who comes to the table worried about carbon emissions has on their agenda," says Michael Greenberger, a derivatives expert at the University of Maryland who has also served in the CFTC and the Justice Department. "Those people—and they're fighting a good battle—opened the door."

"Even a well-designed regulatory system may not be able to prevent gamblers from contorting prices and discouraging the investments in green energy that are the entire purpose of cap and trade. After all, one lesson to be drawn from the economic crisis is that complexity is like catnip to the unscrupulous, and the carbon regime that would be created by cap and trade is nothing if not complex.

"Perhaps the biggest uncertainty hinges on how offset derivatives—such as a contract to buy offset credits at a future date for a determined price—will be monitored. This too would be left to the White House task force to figure out. It will be a tough task because the quality of offset projects is notoriously difficult to verify. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has described them as 'fraught with opportunity for game playing, which will be fully exploited, I'm sure.' "

The economic disaster of the last few years proved that the greedy Wall Street and financial industry's casino players will find a way to cheat and commit fraud to increase wealth for the rich few, relying on their corporatist government marionettes for trillions of taxpayers and borrowed monies for a bailout from the financial meltdown they cause knowing they won't be held accountable for their crimes.

Insider trading by Moody's CEO....perish the thought even though timing of stock sales smells; Wall Street is only filled with Boy Scouts.

Warnings by progressive economists about unemployment crisis and deflation growing louder since the creation of Obama's anti-Social Security deficit commission, are now being echoed by some Fed members.

UN declares water and sanitation a basic human right.

Senate drilling accountability bill, like most Capitol Hill legislation falls short since it does not regulate hydraulic fracturing which poisons groundwater, a human rights violation.

Good for her.....Sherrod to sue Breitbart.

Michigan pipeline oil spill adds more woes to an already polluted river; it was also another episode in a series of oil spills by the pipeline company in other locations.

Temperatures in the first half of 2010 have been the hottest ever; "scientists have also released what they described as the "best evidence yet" of rising long-term temperatures".....global warming as a reality.

Federal judge blocks key provisions of Arizona's infamous immigration law.

Obama administration more like the Bushites....pushing for warrantless access to Internet records;  it's a hypocritical change for the worse from this administration as Obama's "embrace of the prior administration's policies has transformed Bush/Cheney radicalism into the "new normal."

New Deal raised the top tax rates on income over $200,000 — about $2.5 million in today’s collars — to over 90 percent. current tax rate on oversized incomes sits at 35 percent, and the debate this summer in Congress will only consider whether or not we should let that 35 percent revert back to the 39.6 percent level in effect pre-George W. Bush.  The ultimate winners will be the wealthy.

"Coalition launches drive to fight Social Security cuts."  The irony is having to even launch this coalition or post the top five Social Security myths with a Democratic president and Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.  However, these mostly DINO Dems are an integral part of the problem.

Killing our oceans....."Microscopic marine algae which form the basis of the ocean food chain are dying at a terrifying rate, scientists said today."

You can fool some of the people some of the time....."Wetlands front groups funded by big oil uses celebrities (willing or duped?) "to spread the message that U.S. taxpayers should pay for the damage caused by BP to Gulf Coast wetlands, and that the reckless offshore oil industry should continue drilling for the "wholesale sustainability" of the region."

"Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film from the Helmand frontline shows the horrific chaos of a stalemate that is taking its toll in blood."

Secret spy agency known as the Pond, created by U.S. military intelligence as a counterweight to the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, it functioned as a semiautonomous agency for the State Department after World War II and ended its days as a contractor for the CIA with links to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.....it became discredited because its pugnacious leader was too cozy with Sen. Joseph McCarthy and other radical anti-communists.

Time for our every-now-and-then-peek into the world of finance, fiscal policy and macroeconomics — and their affect on the body politic. The widely quoted Kent Engelke (see Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Dow Jones, etc.), the chief economics strategist and managing director of Richmond-based Capitol Securities Management, today wrote this in his daily morning commentary, regarding one of the causes of out-of-control government spending at all levels:

About twenty years ago government workers gained incredible power by being allowed to unionize demanding private sector pay while maintaining generous government benefits under the guise that such were required to attract top talent. Twenty years later I believe the pendulum has swung too far. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics total employer compensation costs are $27.73 per hour in business and $39.81 in state and local government. Wow! Great pay, great benefits and a small probability of losing one’s job. Something is amiss.

Amiss, indeed. In fact, while the private sector is losing jobs, the public sector is adding jobs. Thank you, “stimulus” bill.) The only thing it is stimulating is the growth of government. Six of the wealthiest localities in the country now are those on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., including: Fairfax, Arlington, Stafford and Prince William counties, as well as the city of Alexandria (see Forbes). Not that this has gone unnoticed by the public at large. As Engelke writes, there is a political consequence to the Left’s promiscuous unionization of what once was known as public service:

As all polls suggest, most have little regard for Congress reflected by 15% approval ratings. The President’s approval ratings are the lowest of any President at this time in any administration. The major reasons — (lack of)  jobs and out of control fiscal spending.

Lack of jobs, that is, except for those in government, America’s new growth industry.

The November mid-term elections this November is about more than who controls Congress. Although it looks increasingly like a wave of near unprecedented proportions will wipe out the Leftists in charge of the House, and possibly the Senate, (see Michael Barone’s analysis in the Washington Examiner), the throw-the-libs-out movement doesn’t stop there.

There are more than 20 state legislative chambers that may flip from Democrat to Republican control this year, reports Joseph Weber at the Washington Times. A flip of this magnitude by either party always is huge news as states are the great policy labs as well as providing a bench for future statewide and federal office. But this year, still more is at stake: redistricting. The party in charge of a state’s legislature will draw the new Congressional districts based on the census figures as well as their own districts. A large legislative sweep could ensure GOP control of Congress and state houses for at least 10 years. Not only that, the GOP is poised to regain a majority of governorships according to polling data.

Here’s the devastating news to left-wing hearts:

A survey by the Washington-based Governing magazine last week found that more chambers could change party hands in 2010 than in any other election cycle since at least 2002. Although more than 20 Democrat-controlled state chambers are in play, Republicans are in jeopardy of losing just four.

Other surveys show Republican gubernatorial candidates looking strong in many states, increasing the chance of a major shift in the balance of power in state-level politics heading into the 2012 presidential election.

The party in the White House usually loses seats at the state level in midterm elections.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the White House party has been a net loser of state legislative seats in every election in the past 110 years except 1934 and 2002, the first midterm elections of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush, respectively.

That dynamic, combined with voter concerns about the economy, federal spending and Democratic control of 55 percent of state seats means 2010 is “shaping up to be the worst election for Democrats since 1994,” said the NCSL’s Tim Storey. 

The Washington Post looks at Ken Cuccinelli and manages to not make him into the snarling knuckle-dragger that their editorial board wants to portray him.  And interesting look at a guy who a lot of people try and define on the extreme, but is actually much deeper than most realize.  

He's going places.

A longtime immigration advocate and lobbyist blasted Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, for proposing legislation Thursday that she said would "go far beyond the Arizona law by criminalizing even the simple act of seeking shelter by a person here without authority." Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, a former chief deputy attorney general of Virginia, said Stewart's proposal will "foster nothing but a disrespect for the law, do nothing to make us safer, will render people homeless and hungry, will tie up our courts with frivolous lawsuits by vigilantes and interfere with the ability of law enforcement to focus on real crimes and real criminals." Stewart introduced a proposal, dubbed the Virginia Rule of Law Act, earlier Thursday that would enhance police officials' power to capture, detain and deport illegal aliens; curb illegal day laboring; and create specific state penalties for illegal immigrants. Virginia, known for some


Law - Immigration - Arizona - Virginia - Police

Cheryl Simmons, who circulated and signed off on 123 pages of a petition to get a change of government in Arlington County on the November ballot, is a felon and therefore not eligible to vote, said Linda Lindberg, general registrar of Arlington County. Only residents able to register to vote are permitted to collect signatures for ballot initiatives, according to county law. More than 2,200 signatures on Simmons's pages had to be disqualified, bringing the total number of verified signatures to 10,815. The petition needed 14,350 signatures to get the change of government issue on the ballot. Lindberg said she was in the final stages of validating the more than 16,000 signatures turned in two weeks ago when she learned, through Virginia law enforcement officials and the State Board of Elections, that Simmons had been convicted of embezzlement charges and had previous convictions that had been downgraded. The change of


Virginia - Government - Initiative - United States - Petition

With a claim that Republicans have a Contract On America, and addressing an imaginary group called the "Republican Tea Party," Democrats rolled out their latest attack on both the GOP and tea parties.

Hello ... Mr. Kaine..." Oh, never mind. Don't let the facts get in your way of pushing an ever increasing liberal agenda.

I'm not sure whether this says more about Republicans versus Democrats, or if it's one young lady's vision of the ideal wedding versus another, or if it's a difference in upbringing and backgrounds.

Jenna Bush got married in 2008 (to Virginian Henry Hager) at her parents' ranch in Crawford. Her father was the current Republican President of the United States. Cost of her wedding: reportedly $100,000.

Chelsea Clinton is supposedly getting married this weekend at a rented/borrowed estate in New York state. Her father is the former Democratic President of the United States. Cost of her wedding: reportedly $3-5 million.

Maryland officials on Monday announced plans for a huge cybersecurity training and evaluation center that could take the state one step closer toward its goal of becoming a national center for cybersecurity.
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More at DC Tech News
http://www.dctechsource.com/maryland_lands_cybersecurity_center.aspx

“Hi I’m Kim with Simply Beautiful in Austin, Texas. We are going to do makeup in ten easy steps. This is Sara. We have already created the blank slate. These are the first three steps. We are going to go … Continue reading →

We have often heard mention of Ronald Reagan’s speech about “bold colors” and not “pale pastels” in which he encouraged Conservatives to draw clear distinctions between themselves and the Liberal movement. There are some in the Republican Party who long derided this philosophy as “divisive” and claimed that this style of conservatism “could not win”.

However, according to a The New Republic article, this tactic is not only working, but working brilliantly.

The Pew Research Study cited by The New Republic indicates that voters are, by and large, identifying their philosophy as conservative. In other words, by being bold in our beliefs, via the TEA Party movement and other recent activism, we have seen a public shift in our direction.

It would seem that Ken Cuccinelli-style conservatism is more “mainstream” than many would like to admit.

The Covington Lumberjacks-Waynesboro Generals game scheduled for Thursday has been postponed after Waynesboro was hit by a severe storm Thursday afternoon.

The game will be played on Sunday at 1 p.m. as part of a day-night doubleheader. Waynesboro will host Covington at 1 p.m., and then play at home against the Staunton Braves in the regular-season home finale at 7 p.m.
 
 

Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.

A quiet campus at Eastern Mennonite University? Not at all, especially this summer, with outside groups and auxiliary programs stretching the facilities non-stop from early May through mid-August and several major capital improvement projects happening simultaneously.

The biggest project: what is being called “Phase II” of the University Commons, a $2.4 million funded project that will largely benefit and enhance fine arts programs at EMU.

The former student center/gymnasium attached to the south end of the Commons is being turned into a 200-seat mainstage theater. The new facility will offer tiered seating, new dressing rooms and costume shop and more storage space.

This fall’s mainstage theater production, the musical comedy, “The Triumph of Love,” will be presented mid-October in Lehman Auditorium while the Phase II work continues, with completion slated for November this year.

Adjacent to the new mainstage theater will be the Lee Eshleman Studio Theater for smaller, more intimate performances. The facility is being named in honor of Lee Eshleman, a 1986 art graduate who teamed up with Ted Swartz as the actor-playwright duo, Ted & Lee, for 20 years until Eshleman’s death in 2007.

The student-run Common Grounds coffeehouse will remain at its present site in the Commons but is being enlarged with a built-in stage area and special lighting. It will also be air-conditioned and handicap-accessible.

Second floor of the Phase II Commons project will feature an advanced media lab for the VACA (Visual and Communication Arts) program. The 25′ by 45′ room will have 15 work stations with state-of-the-art equipment for video/audio editing and advanced digital imaging.

Across Park Road from the Commons, Elmwood residence hall is being completely renovated, with its companion, Maplewood to follow once Elmwood is completed by Christmas this year. Both buildings opened in 1963 and “are sorely in need of major improvements,” according to C. Eldon Kurtz, director of physical plant at EMU.

Improvements to both buildings will feature environmentally-friend heating and cooling systems, modernized safety features, improved natural and artificial lighting, expanded lounge areas serving each floor, new exit stairs and elevators in each building. Both three-story buildings will each accommodate 85 students.

Once Elmwood is completed, attention will focus during spring semester 2011 on a similar renovation of Maplewood residence hall, with anticipated completion the summer of 2011.

“When Maplewood is completed, Elmwood and the new Cedarwood residence hall that opened last fall will make up a ‘Woods Quad’ with an arched window motif and pitched roofs and shingles for visual continuity” with other major buildings on campus,” Kurtz said.

“We are working to obtain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council on both Elmwood and Maplewood at least on the ’silver’ level,’ Kurtz added.

Harman Construction Company of Harrisonburg is general contractor for the Phase II Commons project and $6 million residence hall renovations.

But wait, there’s more. Kurtz rattled off a long list of capital improvement projects being undertaken this summer by his own physical plant staff:

- An enlarged classroom on ground floor of the seminary building for the MA in counseling program;

- A $70,000 renovation project on ground floor of Hartzler Library to allow for a merger of Information Systems user services and Learning Resources personnel. The “Help Desk” and several IS staff members are moving to this location before classes begin this fall;

- Replacing the roof of Hartzler Library to resolve water issues and preparing for the eventual installation of solar panels there;

- Repairing the flat roof portion of Lehman Auditorium;

- Installing a “green roof” over the bike storage shed at Cedarwood residence hall (“plants are already growing there,” Kurtz noted);

- Replacing the sand in the outdoor volleyball court adjacent to Roselawn residence hall;
- Installing an additional emergency alerting system that uses the 91.7 FM radio frequency. This system provides instantaneous message delivery with audible alarm and serves as another technology reinforcing existing alert systems.

- Implementing a uniform campus-wide key system, beginning with the University Commons.

Even as these projects go forth, EMU has hosted an estimated 6,000 persons this summer for events ranging from 2,000 cyclists for a “BikeVirginia” event, numerous sports camps, an interfaith peace camp, several church groups of 500-600 people and the annual Blue Ridge Running Camp.

“The biggest challenge for us this summer, apart from juggling all these capital improvement projects, is trying to maintain a level of attractiveness on campus with the prolonged heat and lack of moisture,” Kurt said, adding: “There’s certainly no shortage of things to keep us all busy, but these efforts should provide long-range benefits for students and the community alike.”
 
 

Story by Jim Bishop. Jim can be reached at bishopj@emu.edu.

Seven individuals, one regional emergency medical services agency and the local-government administration in Rockbridge County received awards from the Central Shenandoah Regional EMS Council at an awards ceremony held on Wednesday at the Grand Caverns Park in Augusta County.

“The award winners and all of the nominees for each category are outstanding representatives of our regional EMS system,” said CSEMSC President Gary Critzer.

The CSEMSC award winners include:

· Award for Excellence in EMS – Dr. Asher Brand, Regional Operational Medical Director.

· CSEMS Senior Squad Member Award – Gary Moyers, Waynesboro First Aid Crew, City of Waynesboro.

· Outstanding EMS Telecommunications Officer/Dispatcher – Steve Reese, Rockbridge Emergency Communications Center.

· Outstanding EMS Pre-Hospital Provider – Susan Sweet, Waynesboro First Aid Crew, City of Waynesboro.

· Outstanding EMS Pre-Hospital Educator – Hunter Shomo, Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad, City of Staunton.

· Outstanding Contribution to EMS by a Nurse – Brandy Hostetter, Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital, Lexington.

· Outstanding EMS Administrator –Steve Higgins, Harrisonburg Rescue Squad, City of Harrisonburg.

· Outstanding EMS Agency – Augusta County Fire and Rescue.

· Outstanding Contribution to EMS – Rockbridge County Administration.

· CSEMS Kevin Sperka Award (Junior Member Award) – Logan Parker, Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad, Augusta County.

· CSEMS High School Senior Scholarship ($1,000) – Logan Parker, Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad, Augusta County.

The award winners’ nominations have been submitted to the Virginia EMS Advisory Board to compete at the state level in the Governor’s EMS Awards. The winners will be announced on Nov. 13 in Norfolk at the Annual Virginia EMS Symposium, Critzer said.

The Central Shenandoah EMS Council serves the counties of Augusta, Bath, Highland, Rockbridge, Rockingham, and the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro. The regional EMS council is an integral part of Virginia’s comprehensive EMS system. It serves to assess, identify, coordinate, plan and implement an efficient and effective regional EMS delivery system in partnership with the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services and the Governor’s EMS Advisory Board.
 
 

Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.

The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge announced on Thursday that it has received a $10,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to host The Big Read 2011 in Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County.

This is the fourth year in a row that the Foundation has received this honor. The Community Foundation is one of 75 not-for-profits nationwide—including arts and cultural organizations, libraries and universities—to receive a grant to host a Big Read project between September 2010 and June 2011.

The Big Read gives communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 31 selections from U.S. and world literature. The Big Read 2011 in Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County will focus on Carson McCullers’ novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Activities will take place throughout March of 2011.

“We were especially honored to receive the grant this year,” commented Christiana Shields, the Foundation’s Grants Manager. “In 2009, the NEA awarded over 300 Big Read grants. This year it was cut down to only 75, many of whom were new grantees. It really speaks to the quality of programming our community has provided over the past three years.” The Community Foundation, in partnership with the Staunton Public Library, the Waynesboro Public Library, the Augusta County Library, and The News Leader, has hosted three extremely successful Big Reads, with a multitude of community assistance, featuring events all over the community in libraries, schools, restaurants, theaters, galleries, nursing homes, and clinics, among other places.

“The arts in general – and literature, in particular – often serve as an expression of our shared values.　 This is exactly why they are so effective as a fulcrum for community engagement,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman.　 “Thanks to these 75 grants, communities nationwide will be inspired, delighted and challenged by a book they are discovering for the first time, or an old favorite to which they are returning.”

Becky Kohler, the Community Foundation’s CEO, agrees with this. “We are thrilled to once again be included in this select group of communities. It is a wonderful opportunity for Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County, and will serve as both a catalyst to bring our community together and a highly creative effort to encourage literary reading.”

The community’s 2010 Big Read, which centered around Ray Bradbury’s seminal novel, Fahrenheit 451, featured over 92 events throughout Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County. In addition to the public libraries, over 32 community partner organizations participated. Books, Reader’s Guides, Teaching Guides, and other materials were also distributed free of charge to all the public high schools in the area. Several middle schools and Blue Ridge Community College also had students reading and discussing the book. “We had over 1,000 people participate in book discussions alone,” commented Shields, “not to mention the thousands of others who attended the theatrical presentations, musical events, gallery shows, and the multitude of other events that tied into the novel.”

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Support for The Big Read has been provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Boeing Company, the Poetry Foundation, and the Ford Motor Company.

For more information about The Big Read please visit www.neabigread.org.
 
 

Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.

The inaugural Nomadic Roots Festival begins Thursday evening at Crimora Park in Crimora. People from all over Virginia will camp out under the stars for three nights to listen to local bands playing around the clock.

Not only will 21 bands be there, but there will also be eight vendors and countless artists, including live-art performances featuring canvas painting, graffiti walls, hula hooping and fire dancing.

The festival has been a dream of Logan Byrd and his college friend, David Eiserman. With the help of Logan’s father, Tim Byrd, the dream has been made a reality.

“Crimora is pretty conservative, so we needed a little help getting all of this together. Ron Sites over at the Augusta Parks and Recreation helped a lot. We couldn’t have done it without him,” said Logan Byrd, whose band, Momentary Prophets will also be performing at the festival.

“We just wanted to get people together to hear good music. There are a lot of bands with a message here. The main thing is to build a community and promote conscious living,” Byrd said.

There will be talks and lectures about sustainability and ecoconsciousnes. The food provided will be all organic vegan.

The festival is a family-friendly event complete with morning yoga on Friday and Saturday mornings.

“This is just a really great way to network and bring people together with a common interest, music,” Byrd said.

Tickets are on sale at the door for $40 for the entire weekend and $20 for a day pass. Music kicks off at 5:30 p.m. Thursday evening.

To check out the full festival lineup, visit http://nomadicrootsfestival.com.
 
 

Story by Jenny Hypes. Jenny can be reached at jenny.hypes@emu.edu.

In his first budget, Obama proposed a $5 billion “infrastructure bank” that would give capital grants to state and local governments. It was to be administered by an independent body, but the proposal was never fleshed out beyond these rough guidelines.
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