uvAggravator2.0

Ah, the joys of incompetence at VCU.

Let’s say that someone, say a handsome young blogger, submits his Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on February 9, 2010.

How long does it take for this application to be processed by his public university? Over six months. And then only after two e-mails and a phone call.

He finally gets the financial aid request processed and is awarded a respectful amount of money for his schooling. However, a large portion of the financial aid awards are now not being credited to his outstanding account balance.

Then, on August 24th, he purchases a parking pass at the expense of $170 for VCU’s parking garage on W. Broad Street. On August 26th, the first day of classes, he drops by the Monroe Park Parking Office to pick up the permit.

What is he told? That they won’t have the parking permit available until 3:00 p.m.

Uh, what now? This is the parking office, where do you usually keep the parking permits? Are they kept in a secret depository at Mount Weather or something?

This university needs a massive purging of its incompetent employees.

Why? Because I am sick of the right and all the noise and bluster coming out of the right this year. It is not that I agree at all with President Obama’s policies, but I am so sick of the now that I see no reason I should bother to support — or even give the illusion of support — by voting for a Republican.

Why am I sick of the right? Well, consider the following:

The three antis

The following three items have essentially come to make up 95% of the noise coming out of the right this year, with all the noise being demagogic and disgusting:

Anti-immigration

Illustrated perfectly by the recent law enacted by the state of Arizona and the lies propagated by its supporters:

Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona has stated their police have found many decapitated bodies in the Arizona desert, with the implication that it is a result of illegal immigrants.
Fact: Multiple medical examiners in Arizona have stated there have been no reports of immigration-related decapitated bodies.

Crime is at record levels on the U.S. side of the United States-Mexican border.
Fact: Crime in most places on the border is at a four-year low.

Citizens on the border don’t feel safe.
Fact: According to a recent poll, 87% of border residents said that they felt safe.

And then add in stuff like claims that  so-called “anchor babies” are part of some massive Islamic terrorist plot, politicians calling for illegal immigrant interment camps, and a proposal by a Florida GOP gubernatorial hopeful that any non-citizen carry papers or be thrown in jail.

It’s nice to see that the party that calls Obama a “communist”, a “socialist”, and a “Marxist”, is trying to turn the United States into the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.

Anti-Muslim bigotry

While the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” has been in the news a lot, there is a much larger problem.

On the “Ground Zero mosque”, which is two blocks away from Ground Zero, Republicans have yet again shown themselves to be this country’s biggest enemy of private-property rights (something that I have known to be true locally for years). Republicans railed against the Kelo decision, but now you have a GOP gubernatorial candidate in New York promising to use eminent domain to seize the property that the proposed mosque is to be built on.

But anti-Muslim protests have expanded into Connecticut, Tennessee, California, and Wisconsin. And now we have the head of the American Family Association saying that no mosques should be allowed to be built anywhere in the country and the GOP Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee referring to Islam as a “cult”.

The Republican Party, including its leaders like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, want to shred the Constitution, along with its protections of freedom of religion and private property.

Anti-gay bigotry

If you have followed the response to the Prop. 8, you know what I’m talking about: Prop. 8 proponents talking about how gay marriage is going to destroy the country (people have seriously said that).

So, let me get this straight: This country has survived for over 200 years, through its revolutionary war, a civil war, two World Wars, a 40+ year Cold War, miscellaneous wars, conflicts, and interventions, and letting a couple thousand gay couples marry is going to the destroy the country? Uh, yeah, right. Anyone else not buying that?

In addition, you have the proponents of Prop. 8, and opponents of the federal court ruling, that are intentionally misrepresenting the case. They keep claiming that the court ruling will compel churches to do ceremonies for gay couples. And I, for one, do not believe that these people are so stupid they cannot understand the difference between a court ruling saying a state government cannot discriminate against someone versus the a ruling saying a church cannot. They are categorically misrepresenting the decision by Judge Walker in California to fearmonger and demagogue. Or, you can draw the conclusion that they think the church is the state and vice versa. Pick your poison.

And these are the same people that want to recriminalize sodomy, think that “Hitler used gay soldiers because they ‘basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after’”, and God only knows what else.

But these folks actually believe it. How scary is that? And Republicans constantly claim to be the party of limited government (ad nauseam), but they think they should have the power to throw gays — or any other group that has the slightest difference in their ‘moral’ outlook — in jail. You are either for limited government or not, you cannot call yourself an advocate for limited government on the fiscal side, and then propose using the government to persecute people who do not follow your exact opinion on ‘social’ issues, but have committed no crime.

The rhetoric

In part, this is an extension of some of the stuff mentioned before. You cannot go five minutes without someone calling Obama a “Marxist”, “socialist”, “Nazi”, etc. Throw in the rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims, and gays, and you have a trifecta of demagoguery that makes me want to vomit when I hear it. And why should I support people who engage in and use this rhetoric and act as though they are speaking for me?

The anti-intellectualism

How else do I describe people who believe anything that gets posted on the internet or forwarded to them an e-mail? These people believe that the federal court ruling on Arizona’s immigration law was unconstitutional because some idiot on the internet doesn’t know the difference between a court having original jurisdiction and exclusive jurisdiction.

And then there’s the tea-party websites that are believe anything e-mail to them and too lazy to do a Google Search to see if something is true or could be easily refuted with five minutes of looking.

The crazies

And then there’s the crazies out there that have become one with the Republican Party. This past Tuesday illustrated this perfectly: Nathan Deal, a Birther who has made comments about “ghetto grandmothers”, was nominated as the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Georgia. In Colorado, Dan Maes, who thinks that bicycling is a United Nations plot to take over local governments in the United States, was nominated as the Republican gubernatorial nominee.

And then there is Sharron Angle (Republican nominee for Senate in Nevada), who by all indications, may be a Christian Fundamentalist.

And you can throw in the other hard-right social-cons into this group too. And I’m talking about the people who literally believe that the United Nations is coming to take their kids, who will give them to gay couples that will molest them. And that’s not an exaggeration, there are people in the Republican Party that believe that.

Locally

And then we turn to the local candidate for me, Congressman Rob Wittman. I supported Wittman during the primary, in part because he was running against that nut Catherine Crabill.

But, now, I see no reason to bother to vote for him this November. Wittman talked constantly during the primary season about how he was all for cutting the size of government and reducing government inefficiency.

But, like every other “fiscal” conservative or Republican out there, while they talk about reducing the size of government, when it comes to cutting something that is inside their district, or may affect their district, all their talk goes out the window. I’m speaking of Wittman’s various and repeated comments about SecDef Robert Gates’s plans to disband the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

Supposedly, Wittman’s a huge fan of reducing the size, scope, and extraneous redundancy in government, right? But, like every other politician out there, he doesn’t have the fortitude to actually follow through and do it.

Yeah, burning that playground equipment is really going stop Islamic terrorism and Shariah Law.

How much responsibility do people like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich bear for this wider wave of Islamophobia that has struck the nation?

H/t: Doug Mataconis and Michael Powell on Twitter.

Jim Geraghty at National Review Online’s “Campaign Spot” blog has a post about the top 25 “worst figures in American history” as determined by 43 right-wing bloggers. Let’s just say that hyperpartisanship is effecting everyone this year:

• 23) Saul Alinsky
• 23) Bill Clinton
• 23) Hillary Clinton
• 19) Michael Moore
• 19) George Soros (8)
• 19) Alger Hiss (8)
• 19) Al Sharpton (8)
• 13) Al Gore (9)
• 13) Noam Chomsky (9)
• 13) Richard Nixon (9)
• 13) Jane Fonda (9)
• 13) Harry Reid (9)
• 13) Nancy Pelosi (9)
• 11) John Wilkes Booth (10)
• 11) Margaret Sanger (10)
• 9) Aldrich Ames (11)
• 9) Timothy McVeigh (11)
• 7) Ted Kennedy (14)
• 7) Lyndon Johnson (14)
• 5) Benedict Arnold (17)
• 5) Woodrow Wilson (17)
• 4) The Rosenbergs (19)
• 3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (21)
• 2) Barack Obama (23)
• 1) Jimmy Carter (25)

Saul Alinsky? Michael Moore? Sharpton? Soros? Noam Chomsky? Did someone confuse “most annoying liberal” with “worst figure in American history? Geez, what have those five doofuses ever actually done?

Why is Jane Fonda even on there? Sure, she served as a propaganda shill for the North Vietnamese, but how does she get on the list while Robert McNamara does not? He is the one that handicapped American troops which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of our troops.

For the same reason as McNamara is the list, Lyndon Johnson should be too. Throw in his massive expansion of the government, but that’s just another point when compared to his actions during the Vietnam War.

I would throw in Janet Reno and John Ashcroft for their accusations, respectively, against Richard Jewel and Steven Hatfill. There are few things that I find more disgusting than a government official using his public office to slander an innocent person.

Sidebar: Should Mike Nifong (Duke lacrosse case) be included? Accusing three innocent people of one the most hideous crimes someone can be accused of for the sole purpose of gaining publicity and ensuing you are reelected to a political office?

Reno also gets included for her treatment as the head of the campaign to deport Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez.

At least one of the participants that were polled included Nathan Bedford Forest — founder of the Ku Klux Klan — on their list, however, he didn’t make the top 25. Alinsky et al. make the list but the founder of a society that terrorized blacks for over a century does not?

I would throw in Andrew Jackson simply as the personification of everything that was wrong in the American treatment of the natives on the continent.

You can debate whether Jimmy Carter should be the list. The debates online that I have seen seem to argue over whether someone should warrant inclusion if their actions were based on either stupidity or incompetence, versus actual malice.

But Barack Obama? Seriously, come on.

If you think I missed someone, leave a comment and I may update my post.

More reading:

Doug Mataconis: The Worst Figures In American History.

Michael Powell: Worst Figures in American History.

Jazz Shaw: How Does One Become a “Worst American?”

Background: On August 10th, Radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger went on a tirade on her radio program using the n-word 11 times. Tuesday, she announced that she would be ending her radio show to “regain [her] First Amendment rights.”

For some perverse reason the former Mayor of Wasilla and half-term Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, decided to jump in and defend someone who thinks it is okay to publicly throw around the n-word with such reasoned debate as this on Twitter:

Dr.Laura:don’t retreat…reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence”isn’t American,not fair”)

[...]

Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!

So, let me get this straight, to criticize someone because you think they are an idiot is a violation of the First Amendment? What exactly does the First Amendment say? Oh, let me look that up:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (emphasis mine throughout)

Is Congress saying that Dr. Laura cannot be a contemptible dipstick? Has the FCC even threaten to fine her? No. These women, both of them, show a complete and utter lack of knowledge about the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

And why exactly is Sarah Palin using her time to defend someone who thinks it is appropriate to throw around the n-word like it is going out of style?

But, honesty, what should I expect from someone like Palin who thinks it is a violation of the First Amendment for the press to act in a manner that she does not approve of?

When will this woman just shut up and raise the average IQ of politicians everywhere?

Adversaries who have been trying to silence Dr. Laura for years seized on her recent use of the n-word on her show as she subsequently suggested that rap “artists” and other creative types like those producing HBO shows who regularly use the n-word could be questioned for doing so. Her intention in discussing the issue with a caller seeking advice was not to be hateful or bigoted. Though she did not mean to insult the caller, she did, and she apologized for it. Still, those who oppose her seized upon her mistake in using the word (though she didn’t call anyone the derogatory term) to paint her as something that she’s not. I can understand how she could feel “shackled” by those who would parse a single word out of decades of on-air commentary. I understand what she meant when she declared that she was “taking back my First Amendment rights” by turning to a new venue that will not allow others the ability to silence her by going after her stations, sponsors, and supporters.

First, who “ha[s] been trying to silence Dr. Laura for years”? As I noticed on Twitter, I was not the only person that was amazed that she still had a radio show. And who exactly is the head of this massive conspiracy to silence the One True Voice of Freedom™ (Dr. Laura)?

And as I noted the two days ago, the First Amendment (of at least our Constitution) states the following:

Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press[.]

Again, is it Congress saying that Dr. Laura cannot be a contemptible fool that thinks it is okay to use the n-word eleven times in a matter of minutes?

And since when was it a violation of the First Amendment to threaten, or conduct, a boycott of someone or their advertisers or sponsors? Is Sarah Palin saying that conservatives violated the First Amendment rights of The Dixie Chicks? Is she saying that conservatives, especially social conservatives, violated the First Amendment rights of The Walt Disney Company? Is she saying that social conservatives, notably the American Family Association, violated the First Amendment rights of Ford Motor Company?

I just reread Animal Farm, and I am starting to think that I could draw a great comparison between what conservatives say is in the Constitution and “The Seven Commandments” and their revisions in the book. (And as a sidenote, my copy of the book has a great foreword about George Orwell that I have been meaning to post.)

How else can you describe what has happened to the Republican Party this year? The Republican Party had a simple route to a landslide election this year: Cut government. But, like the Republican Party so often does, they could not not screw it up.

Instead of focusing on actually cutting government, and coming for plans on how to do that, they have decided to focus on a community center containing a mosque being built on private property in New York City in an attempt to violate a particular religious group’s First Amendment rights. In doing so, they have turned into Virgil Goode:

And people wonder why I will not voting for a Republican this year.

This is a portion of the preface that appears in my copy of Animal Farm (Signet Classic Printing, 50^th Anniversary Edition, April 1996):

[...] Orwell, of course, was seldom happier than when he was attacking fraud and hypocrisy and hearing the squeals of the injured.

Despite his insistence on being “political” in his work, Orwell’s career suggests his politics were the sort that real politicians detest. Why, for example, was Orwell so determined to make the case against Soviet communism at precisely the moment all proper people preferred not to hear it? Devoted socialist he may have been, but he had none of the politician’s instinct for trimming sails to the wind when it is expedient to tell people what they want to hear. Worse, he insisted on telling people precisely what they did not want to hear.

He was that political figure all politicians fear: the moralist who cannot bear to let any wrong deed go undenounced. As a politician he had the fatal defect of the totally honest man: He insisted on the truth even when the truth was most inconvenient.

There is an aloneness about Orwell, an insistence on being his own man, on not playing along with the team as a loyal politician is so often expected to do, or else. This is brilliantly illustrated in his classic essay “Politics and the English Language,” showing how politicians twist the language to distort and deceive. This amounts to an act of treason within the political trade. The man is trying to make it harder for a politician to fool enough of the proper enough of the time to gain power.

Another interesting aspect is the following, after the Baker mentions how technology was often times portrayed as being the greatest tool of the tyrant in Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World:

What was unpredictable was the liberating effect of technology. The Soviet Union could surround itself with walls but could not block out revolutionary radio and electronic waves, which stirred up the supposedly whipped human herd with an irresistible appetite for rock ’n’ roll, blue jeans, and other such subverters of totalitarian rule.

[...]

None of this is to say that Orwell and his fellow pessimists of the 1940s ought not to be read with the greatest respect. They should be. They show us the edge of terror on which we lived fifty years ago and help us understand why that generation was willing to spend so much treasure and take such daring risks to keep totalitarianism at bay. And in Animal Farm Orwell left us a lesson about the human contribution to political terror that will always be as up-to-date as next year’s election.

What is an organization or movement other than a sum of its parts, in this case, its members?

Herman Cain, a business leader and radio host; and Tea Party Patriot co-founder Jenny Beth Martin have joined the roster of speakers for the Virginia Tea Party Convention.

Organizers have invited about two dozen speakers, mostly prominent conservatives, to address the convention Oct. 8-9 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

[...]

Martin, who lives in suburban Atlanta, helped launch the Tea Party Patriots organization in early 2009. This year Time Magazine named her to the “Time 100″ list of “people who most affect our world.”

Other keynote speakers who have confirmed so far are former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs; Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., founder of Exodus Faith Ministries International and president of a group that promotes Judeo-Christian values; political strategist Dick Morris, and John Fund, a conservative author and columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Jenny Beth Martin? A woman, who along with her husband, declared bankruptcy with over $680,000 in tax debts alone.

Yet SecTreas Timothy Geithner is the devil incarnate to the tea-party folks because he owned the federal government a mere $35,000 by comparison.

Lou Dobbs? Birther.

Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr.? A person that espouses a Christian Theological view that this country was founded on Christian values (apparently he never heard of The Enlightenment), rants about the “homosexual political lobby”, supports a total ban on gays serving in the military, and supports a federal marriage amendment to the United States Constitution.

Wait, I thought this whole tea-party think was about fiscal conservatism and limited government? I guess that’s the case until the Christian Fundamentalists on the far-right, who have become part and parcel with the tea-party “movement”, want to impose their beliefs on the whole nation, the Constitution be damned.

Dick Morris? A former Clintonista (you know, the original President that proposed “socialized” health care) who got fired because he was messing around with a prostitute.

Over at Bearing Drift, a Steven Osborne has a post about what — in his deluded mind — the gay marriage ruling (by Judge Vaughn R. Walker in Perry v. Schwarzenegger) means.

Frankly, I’m not sure why I’m bothering to post about a blog post that is just awful. I guess it’s partly because it’s so full of it, it’s amazing. Here’s the one of the most outlandish things stated in the post:

The Walker decision has, for the first time in American history, established that marriage is a fundamental right rather than an institution.

Oh really, the first time ever you say? I’m curious did you even bother to read the opinion, Mr. Osborne? Apparently not, quoting from page 110 (PDF page 112) of the opinion:

The freedom to marry is recognized as a fundamental right protected by the Due Process Clause. See, for example, Turner v Safely, 482 US 78, 95 (1987) (“[T]he decision to marry is a fundamental right” and marriage is an “expression[ ] of emotional support and public commitment.”); Zablocki, 434 US at 384 (1978) (“The right to marry is of fundamental importance for all individuals.”); Cleveland Board of Education v LaFleur, 414 US 632, 639-40 (1974) (“This Court has long recognized that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”); Loving v Virginia, 388 US 1, 12 (1967) (The “freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”); Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479, 486 (1965) (“Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in our prior decisions.”).

Now, for those not versed in legalese, the underlined words that have “v”s in them are the case names. You see? Very good. The things after are volume, reporter, and page citations. For example, 482 U.S. 78, 95, means that the beginning of case Turner v. Safely begins on page 78 of volume 482 of the United States Reports, and the quote is from page 95 of the same volume. (The numbers in the parentheses are the year the case was decided.)

Now, you may be asking, “What’s the United States Reports, Mr. Genius Blogger?” Why, kids, that would be the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States, meaning that every case cited in that paragraph is from the Supreme Court of the United States.

So, how exactly, is this case the first time that marriage has been “established” as “a fundamental right rather than an institution” when you have five SCOTUS decisions that state the exact opposite?

Geez, I have no idea who this idiot blogger is — other than he’s a student at Liberty University — but I hope to God he isn’t a pre-law student. *Shudder*.

Oh, and Chris Frashure reams him out in the comments section too. Give that a read, that first paragraph makes it one of the best comments I’ve read in a long time.

Geez. That woman’s nuts.

And that comment thread has a major attack of the Palinbots too.

Why does that woman have any credibility with anyone? At least it’s gotten to the point where an endorsement from her is a net negative.

Special guest post by your favorite hate-blogger’s mother, Kay Watson:

On Election Day, my son, Timothy and I were doing volunteer work for Congressman Rob Wittman, handing out literature at the Port Royal Precinct in Caroline County. At about 4:25 PM, an SUV pulled up and I got up from my chair, picked up some pamphlets, and started walking over to the car to ask if the occupants wanted any information on Congressman Wittman. I saw it was Catherine Crabill getting out of the passenger side of the car so I turned around and went back behind my table in the tent. Ms. Crabill had already been rude to my husband and me last Friday at the Westmoreland Republican meeting (she called us character assassins) and I did not want a confrontation with her. Timothy was also behind the table talking to his brother on the phone. Mrs. Crabill walked about 50 or 60 feet to our table and started harassing me. She called Timothy wicked and my family wicked and then she said that Congressman Wittman was doing so well because of Timothy’s lies and my families’ lies about her. (Timothy and his brother, Garrett, have blogged about Ms. Crabill on their blogs and have never lied about her. They just wrote about and made fun of her ridiculous statements. And no one has said anything about her family, excluding her husband hiding in the woods waiting for the National Guard which was a direct quote from a magazine article. Before I commented last Saturday on Virginia Virtucon, I have never written anything about her and neither has my husband.) She also called me Jezebel twice (once Timothy got on the following tape). And she implied that I was stalking her by saying she should get a restraining order against me. I have been to four public meetings where she was in attendance. She just happened to come to my voting precinct after Timothy tweeted about being there. The tape starts after she has said that she should arrange to have the demons cast out of Timothy and then she said my family should have the demons cast out and I respond, “You should have the demons cast out of you!” I did not realize Timothy was taping the last part of the conversation but I am so glad he did. This is the real Catherine Crabill. I cannot diagnose anyone’s illness; but in my professional nursing opinion, I do recommend that she make an appointment with a psychiatrist.

Here’s the audio:

Note: In the original, which is available upon request, there’s a 70 second period of dead air and me speaking on my cell-phone before she comes up with a comeback as noted in the transcript below:

K. Watson: Someone should cast the demons out of you… You’re — uh — one thing, you are really a rude one.

C. Crabill: Me rude?

K. Watson: Yes, ma’am.

C. Crabill: I’d love – I’d love to examine your family, the way your son has explained mine, and put it out there for the whole world to see.

K. Watson:  I haven’t run for any office and made the statements that you’ve made, Ms. Crabill.

C. Crabill: Oh. I — I —

K. Watson: Think about it.

C. Crabill: I’m sure —

K. Watson: There are a lot — there are more things that could have been put out there and weren’t.

C. Crabill [sarcastically]: Oh, well, thank you so much, I feel so [inaudible].

C. Crabill: I have said nothing but the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

K. Watson: No, that’s what my husband told you the other —

T. Watson [on cell-phone]: Quiet down.

K. Watson: — day when you called us “character assassins”.

C. Crabill: You are character assassins.

K. Watson: No, It doesn’t have anything to do with character; I think it has to do with poor judgment.

C. Crabill [interjecting]: I — I have — I have never experienced, such a — you are the Ahab and Jezebel of my experience with your wicked son.

K. Watson: You might want to consider getting some help, you really might.

C. Crabill: Oh, I know that you would think that way. I would say the same for you. In fact, I might have to get a restraining order against you.

K. Watson: No, you can’t get a restraining order against us in a public building, in a public meeting, only if we come to your home, which we have no desire to do.

C. Crabill: Thank you for that, I’m so reassured.

[Unintelligible]

G. Watson [over cell-phone]: Call the Caroline Sheriff’s Department on ‘em.

C. Crabill [low]: You might want to break out your little recorder, get this all on tape. You’re missing an opportunity here.

I miss no opportunity Cathy. Carpe diem. Continued from the transcript:

[70 seconds later]

C. Crabill [low]: It’s interesting that you know so much about restraining orders, I guess you’ve had some filed against you.

T. Watson: No, we know something about the law, it’s not very —you know— hard. Kinda like treason being defined in the Constitution.

The 70 seconds it took for Crabill to think of a comeback, as well as her coming up with nothing to my retort reminded me of this video, featuring George Costanza as Catherine Crabill (I would embed the video but embedding is disabled):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLjxp_86dKs

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

At this point, does this really surprise anyone?

I’m sure that Delegate Albert Pollard enjoyed posting that screenshot, especially after being personally insulted by her for nine straight months.

I bet Crabill will be alleging a pan-Episcopalian conspiracy in a few minutes…

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

This was recorded at the Westmoreland County Republican Committee meeting on June 4th in Montross:

(That was a condensed version of her speech, if you wish to listen to the whole thing it can be downloaded here.)

Some thoughts:

Over a million dollars in attorney fees? It cost that much to write up a motion to dismiss against a frivolous lawsuit? I guess it’s too hard for her to cite a legitimate news source for something like that.

And how exactly is a lone Congressman supposed to initiate an investigation? That usually requires a majority of the House, or at least a majority on a committee, which the Republicans both lack.

And since when did Congress have power to issue an indictment? I sure enough don’t see that in the United States Constitution. I know she’s one of those citizen grand jury nuts (the grand jury is the fourth branch of government according to them), but sheesh.

And can you say “persecution complex”?

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

I simply have to marvel at the stuff coming out of the Catherine Crabill campaign. At the 99th District Tea Party’s website (get your own link), they ask the question: “Is Rep. Rob Whitman [sic] Conservative Enough ?”

One of the inane points the author uses is that Wittman has refused to debate Crabill despite being offered “several opportunities”.

For the record, I’ve been told that an invitation was extended to Catherine Crabill by e-mail to participate in the 2010 Rappahannock Bloggers Forum. She never bothered to respond to the invitation. Wittman, on the other hand is in, as Democratic Party challenger Krystal Ball.

Then she requested time to speak before the Spotsylvania County Republican Committee meeting. While not a debate per se, the Chairman agreed to give her time to speak and to answer questions presented by the committee at their last meeting on Thursday (May 27th). The Chairman also extended an invitation to Representative Wittman to speak as well. While Wittman couldn’t attend because he was busy on The Hill, he did sent a representative in his stead.

What did Catherine Crabill do? She didn’t bother to show for the meeting last Thursday. This was after she contacted the Chairman and requested time.

Of course, this is not the first time that Catherine Crabill has blatantly lied about Wittman’s positions. First, she accused Wittman of supporting TARP (he voted against that twice). Then she “Oops”, and said that he actually supported Obama’s “Stimulus”. Turns out it was the stimulus proposed by George W. Bush, which was mostly tax cuts. Oops again. And now this.

And, as a final note, the lovely folks responsible for that blog can’t even spell the name of a sitting United States Congressman correctly. If you’re going to attack a Congressman on a blog — much less the Congressman that represents the district you’re in — you might want to learn how to spell his name. It’s Rob Wittman, not Whitman.

Christ, these folks are worse than The Free Lance–Star.

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

And she’s running for Congress why now? She accuses Representative Rob Wittman of not being conservative enough but he actually bothered to oppose TARP and voted against it twice.

When asked by the Prince William County Family Alliance if she would “[a]uthorize regulatory agencies to provide relief to banks in exchange for bank stock”, she checked the “Undecided” box and wrote the following as a comment: “Don’t know enough about this (the ramifications).”

Uh-huh, she doesn’t know enough about this. TARP was almost two years ago, and she still hasn’t bothered to learn anything about it?

Why exactly is she even running for Congress? She yells constantly that she’s the most conservative candidate running, but she doesn’t even bother to state clearly and succinctly that she opposes bailing out banks.

Again, why is she running? Other than the fact that she thinks that Obama is a Communist Muslim who was born in another country and the fact that she hates him. Or is it because she hates Wittman because he refused to endorse her candidacy after it was revealed that she thinks the United States government was responsible for the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City?

In all, it comes down to the the fact that she hates someone, and hatred doesn’t get people very far in politics usually (thankfully).

Cross-posted at On The Right.

According to WTOP:

An Amber Alert has been cancelled and the 17-year-old girl has been found safe and unharmed in Florida.

An Amber Alert was issued after witnesses saw the teenager being forced into a van at a Target store located at 25 South Gateway Drive in Fredericksburg around 11:30 Saturday morning.

Stafford County Sheriff’s Office says what the witnesses saw was the girl kicking and screaming as she fought with her family members because she did not want to move to Florida.

The family told the Jacksonville Police Department that they stopped in Stafford County on the way to a move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The 17-year-old was found with her family in Jacksonville, Florida at 12:20 a.m. Sunday.

So, 24 is finally over. It has been a long nine and half years, with eight season and one television movie, but it is finally over.

But, of course, it isn’t. Not really. As long as there some kind of convoluted plot the writers can come up with and they can find someone to write a check to the production crew and the actors, there will be more Jack.

First, I thought I should point out the significance of the show. “Oh, it’s just some dumb show, how is it significant?” you might be asking. Well, Adam over at The Jack Sack had this great quote in his post reviewing the final episodes (which, in part, motivated me to write this post):

His [Jack Bauer's] story encapsulates a period in this country’s history that, for better or worse, has changed us forever.

I do not think that this point can, or should, be overlooked when discussing the 24 series. I have been watching the show since Day One, Hour One, and its significance has not been lost on me.

For anyone that came remember back that far (and some refuse to), 24 premiered less than two months after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Despite the first season being the product writing, acting, and directing done before the 9/11 attacks, their impact is quite clear even in the first episode. During the pilot, a terrorist (Mandy) blows a commercial jet to cover up the murder and theft of an identification card of a photographer (Martin Belkin) so an assassin can use it an attempt to kill a Presidential candidate (David Palmer). Due to the 9/11 attacks, the explosion of the plane was almost entirely edited out of the episode.

And after 9/11, and as dark as it may sound, people wanted and hoped that there was someone out there like Jack Bauer trying to protect the country. Someone that would do what was necessary to protect the country, even if it meant forfeiting his life, ruining his reputation, or standing up to countless mind-numbing bureaucrats.

That being said, there was one major problem with the final season of 24:

Inconsistent Portray of Characters

“[...] I figure the right thing starts at the beginning of the day, not after you’ve been caught.” –Commander John Crichton (Farscape)

First, let us discuss something called “suspension of disbelief”. Suspension of disbelief is defined by Wiktionary as “[p]eople’s acceptance, for the sake of appreciation of art (including literature and the like), of what they know to be a nonfactual premise of the work of art.”

For example of this, we — the audience — suspend our disbelief that Jack Bauer can survive being shot three times with an assault rifle, most likely chambered in 5.56mm, with a minimal injury of a couple of bruises. We all know that someone that was shot like that would not be getting up and chasing down more bad guys ten minutes later, even if he was wearing a bullet-”proof” vest. We ignore that, usually with a sarcastic comment or two, because the structure, and appreciation, of the story requires that we do so.

However, while we’re willing to accept that Jack Bauer is really The Man of Steel, in addition to such nonsensical stuff such as Chloe’s amazing hacking skillz, and Jack’s ability to maneuver through New York City traffic, it becomes a problem when characters — important ones — act in a manner that is totally inconsistent with prior established acts and morals.

The most glaring example of this during the final season was President Allison Taylor. The previous season established her character as someone that always did the morally right thing. When she had the choice of covering up a murder committed by her daughter — the death of someone that was responsible for the murder of her own son and the attempted murder of her husband — or sending her daughter to prison, she chose to send her daughter to prison.

However, with the majority of the viewers of the final season well aware of her actions last season, this season her character acted in a completely different manner. After the Russian government was responsible for helping to organize a terrorist attack against both the United States and the fictional country of Kamistan (think Iran), which resulted in the death of the President of Kamistan, Omar Hassan, — someone President Taylor considered a friend — Taylor decided to cover this up.

Why? Was it to keep her daughter, or another family member, out of prison?

No, it was preserve an anti-nuclear proliferation treaty with the country of Kamistan. Why was she so willing to throw away everything that she believed in for an anti-nuclear proliferation treaty? Wouldn’t me and the rest of the audience love to know. In the very end, she finally decided to be the good guy. Again, why?

But by this point I probably would not have even cared what her explanation was. By the end of the season, I would have been more satisfied with her being dead than either the Russian Preisdent Yuri Suvarov or Charles Logan.

The same thing can be said about Charles Logan. And, yes, Logan was a complete and utter scumbag through seasons four and five until Jack finally managed to get dirt on him and have him arrested. (Ironically, he would use essentially the same method in the final season). However, when Logan reappeared in season six, he came off as a changed man. And while, yes, it could have been Logan blowing smoke up people’s butts — something he was damn good at — one scene in season six is totally inconsistent with this rationale. After Jack met Logan in season six, there is a scene when Logan quotes  — to himself, while no one else is present — a passage from the Bible. With everything that is said and done by Logan in the sixth season, it presents him as being genuinely repentant about his crimes. Why else show a scene where he is talking to himself that gives that indication otherwise?

However, when Logan popped back up in this final season, he was back to his demeanor from seasons four and five. Why?

Not even Chloe O’Brain could be spared from this despite Mary Lynn Rajskub’s superb portray of Chloe O’Brain in the final two hours. If she had decided to help Jack a couple of hours ago, instead of staging a trap for him, he would have collected the information about the people responsible for the deaths of Omar Hassan and Renee Walker and the body county would be a lot lower. Seriously, when is the last time that Jack has been wrong about this sort of thing?

For another example of this problem, let us go back to last season with Tony Almeida. When we last saw Tony before the last season, everyone thought he had been killed, quite tragically. He was a good guy, one of the very few that Jack had really grown to trust throughout the years. However, it was revealed that Tony was a bad guy. Okay, I could understand that. He was pretty p-oed about the death of wife.

Oh wait, he is actually a good guy who was undercover. Okay, I can understand that (see assumption about Jack’s trust in him).

Oh wait, he’s a bad guy again and he just killed Larry Moss. By this point,  I am totally lost.

Oh wait, maybe he is crazy and half-way a good guy who is out to kill everyone responsible for this wife’s death. See previous comment.

All around, the last two season would be a lot more memorable and good if they did not leave glaring inconsistencies in characters.

Conclusion

I think the biggest problem with the final episode of the series, however, is based on an assumption that a series finale, would, you know, be an actual series finale. Instead, the final episode came off more like a regular season finale instead. And that was exactly the point intended by the writers; they wanted to retain the ability to bring Jack back in the big scene or through some other method.

Frankly, if they wanted it to be a series finale, Jack should have taken the shot and knocked off both Russian President Suvarov and Charles Logan. And whether Jack ended up dead by the end of the episode or not, justice would have been done. Instead, Logan is “alive” with some serious brain damage and Suvarov is probably on his way back to the Rodina (Motherland).

H/t: Below the Beltway

I had an exam in a class on Monday at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). During the next class, today, the professor for the class, Dr. Michelle Peace, said that she had seen several instances of suspicious behavior during the class and she had to issue several warnings to the students. She went on to say that she had worked to improve the stature of VCU in the eyes of the academic and professional community and she didn’t want students undoing her work.

She went on to say that the university had also worked for many years to improve its image. And while I agree wholeheartedly with her opinion on this matter, and frankly, if they’re cheating, give them a zero and report to them to the Honor Council, this university has done nothing to improve its image.

When you award someone a degree when he has failed to meet 10 of the 28 requirements for receiving the degree, you’re not improving your stature.

When you refused to rescind the degree awarded, you’re not improving your stature.

And, as most people probably know, I am referring to former City of Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe.

But it doesn’t just stop with him unfortunately. I was talking to a couple of people (who shall remain nameless) about a receiving a degree with a double major in Criminal Justice (the primary major) and Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (the secondary major). According to the bulletin for receiving a double major according to VCU’s website:

A double major is the concurrent fulfillment of the requirements of two majors. To earn a degree with two majors, the student must complete the courses required in each major, any collateral/prerequisite courses required for both majors and the general education requirements of the primary major.

According to the bulletin posted for a B.A. in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness:

Collateral requirements

In addition to the homeland security and emergency preparedness courses required for the Bachelor of Arts degree, students must complete the study of a foreign language through the intermediate level (202 or 205) through courses or placement.

While I was talking to these students, they asked why would someone go for a minor in Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness when you could just go for a double major and take a couple more classes.

I brought up the fact that you had to go take two additional language classes on top of what is required for a B.S. in Criminal Justice, which only requires a foreign language through a 102 level (two classes).

Care to guess what they said? “Oh, I got that waived.”

They got it waived. By whose authority? The degree requirements are pretty clear. You have to complete a foreign language through 202.

I e-mailed the President of the College, the Provost, as well as the Director of the Wilder School on April 16th and asked where there is authority to waive a clearly stated degree requirement (without mentioning any student’s name).

And I am still waiting on a response.

But, hey, at least it’s not only the big shots that get out of doing mandatory degree requirements.

Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.

I heard about the plane crash a week or so ago and that they had called off a search and rescue attempt a few days later and now the full story has been revealed:

Had a lesser pilot been at the controls of Bluetail 601 last Wednesday, there might have been four memorial services this week instead of one.

But Lt. Miroslav “Steve” Zilberman was one of two pilots in the cockpit of the E-2C Hawkeye as it returned from a mission over Afghanistan, heading toward the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower in the North Arabian Sea.

The Ukrainian-born junior officer had distinguished himself during three years with Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 121. He knew the plane – and its training manual – inside and out.

So after one engine lost oil pressure and then failed completely; after one propeller couldn’t be adjusted to balance the plane; after it was clear that there was no way to safely land, Zilberman ordered his crew to bail out.

He manually kept the Hawkeye stable as it plummeted toward the water, which allowed the three other men to escape.

Time ran out before he could follow.

Zilberman, 31, was declared dead three days later.

• RT @leevogler: Freddie Mercury was absolutely amazing. #nowplaying #ff #
• @gabrielmalor What happened to that SCOTUS case that was challenging the constitutionally of life sentences for juveniles? in reply to gabrielmalor #
• @sdwhite Probably not. in reply to sdwhite #
• @sdwhite What exactly is the 'clearly questionable moral standards'? in reply to sdwhite #
• @dmataconis Watch what you saw about Charlton Heston, sir. in reply to dmataconis #
• Wow, @myfoxdc is really up on the pop-culture stuff. How old was that song they just used (The Last Goodnight's "Pictures of You")? 2007? #
• @kristinnsmith I would take offense with that comment, but, well, you know, I'm a guy and whatnot. :) in reply to kristinnsmith #
• @kristinnsmith No, I was *agreeing* with you, to an extent at least. :) in reply to kristinnsmith #

• RT @leevogler: Freddie Mercury was absolutely amazing. #nowplaying #ff #
• @gabrielmalor What happened to that SCOTUS case that was challenging the constitutionally of life sentences for juveniles? in reply to gabrielmalor #
• @sdwhite Probably not. in reply to sdwhite #
• @sdwhite What exactly is the 'clearly questionable moral standards'? in reply to sdwhite #
• @dmataconis Watch what you saw about Charlton Heston, sir. in reply to dmataconis #
• Wow, @myfoxdc is really up on the pop-culture stuff. How old was that song they just used (The Last Goodnight's "Pictures of You")? 2007? #
• @kristinnsmith I would take offense with that comment, but, well, you know, I'm a guy and whatnot. :) in reply to kristinnsmith #
• @kristinnsmith No, I was *agreeing* with you, to an extent at least. :) in reply to kristinnsmith #

• Anyone else think that the latest episode of #V was kinda anemic? #
• My pet-peeve on the use of the English language today: "domestic violence advocates", really? Shouldn't there be an "anti-" in there? #
• And the award for the worse nightmare of the night/day goes to the one where I needed to shoot multiple burglars but my weapon jammed. #
• RT @Conservativa: Whoever ordered up today's weather in Richmond, VA – excellent work. Pls order more exactly like today, KTHXBAI. #
• WTF? Since when did FEMA pay for people's remodeling or construction costs? http://drudge.tw/cmKILW #

• @allahpundit Game over for who? Steele or stopping amnesty? in reply to allahpundit #
• RT @michellemalkin: Sigh. This sums up the Stupid Party (un)leadership perfectly. Read http://viigo.im/2YNg h/t @WoodyPfister #
• Everyday – I try and I try and I try/But everybody wants to put me down/They say I'm goin' crazy/They say I got a lot of water in my brain #
• A-holes at ABC screw over Neil McDonough: http://is.gd/b9ZHV #
• I know the feeling. RT @jasonkenney: is a fool every other day of the year. What makes today so special? #

• Reporting students' mass e-mails as spam? Fun. #
• @jasonkenney Not really. And one had "Extra Credit" in the subject but was promoting someone in the SGA election. in reply to jasonkenney #
• @jasonkenney Yeah, but he wasn't promoting himself, but someone else. Does that matter? in reply to jasonkenney #
• @jasonkenney Sure. in reply to jasonkenney #
• RT @dmataconis: Cartoon of the Day: Santa Claus and Social Security http://bit.ly/9pTVhJ #
• Students are massive whiners. #fact #
• @jasonkenney First thing that Bill O'Reilly has done that I actually agree with. in reply to jasonkenney #
• RT @walterolson: Misinformation cascades: "How a pit bull is like a Prius" [Fumento, Phila. Inquirer] http://is.gd/b8TMF #
• I need to shapen up on some of these classes or else I'm going to end up with a couple Bs… :( #
• @dmataconis And what does that tell you? :) in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis I'm actually amazed they didn't say soccer. in reply to dmataconis #
• Jesus Christ, does someone on American Idol do that same song *every* year? Fleetwood Mac called, they want their song back. #
• @dmataconis Pretty much. WWE as #3 sounds about right since they have no connection with reality. in reply to dmataconis #
• Wow, the D.C. Police Chief is shocked, shocked!, that someone got shot over a bracelet. (cont) #
• Um, was she around when people were getting killed for their Jordans or bubble jackets? #
• Why does this particular instructor hate me and is forcing me to work with a partner on an assignment? I hate working with other people. #
• RT @overlawyered: Australian court throws out libel suit against game critic [Guardian] http://is.gd/b97An Earlier: http://is.gd/b97B8 #

• @sdwhite @dmataconis Yeah, me too. Although my problem is more that I woke up and haven't fallen back to sleep. #
• @dmataconis Joy, joy, guess I'm going to have to figure out a new way to to pay for school. in reply to dmataconis #
• RT @AceofSpadesHQ: FAQ: How many rounds does it take to cook bacon with a machine gun? A: 150-250. http://tinyurl.com/yhjfowr #
• Frell, I forgot that V comes back on tonight. So, V, Fringe, and Stargate Universe all start back up the same week. Coincidence? #
• @Rick_Sincere So the various networks are trying to give me a science fiction overload? As if I wasn't a big enough nerd already… in reply to Rick_Sincere #
• @Rick_Sincere But why is FOX (Fringe) and ABC (V) assisting NBC/GE in this plan? in reply to Rick_Sincere #

• I find it hard to tell you/I find it hard to take/When people run in circles/It's a very, very/Mad World #
• Someone want to explain why Amaury Nolasco seems to have disappeared during the second season of Southland? #
• RT @RobWittman: http://twitpic.com/1bt8en – Constituents stopped by my office to thank me for supporting efforts to end Juvenile Diabetes #
• RT @dmataconis: wishes that Allison Taylor was President instead of Barack Obama. #24 #
• Why is Gray Anderson plotting as usual? #
• And why is this "general" not in uniform? #24 #
• @dmataconis But she's a Republican (I think). in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis It's hard to keep track of all the different Presidents. Just remembered that W. Palmer was the last elected Pres. before Taylor in reply to dmataconis #
• Jesus, this crap is getting old on #24 How many times has this exact story-line been done? #
• Wait, I've seen this *exact* story-line back in season three. Just replace them with Sherry Palmer and D. Palmer's mistress. #24 #
• *Wayne Palmer's mistress rather in the last tweet. #
• RT @dmataconis: I knew Gray Anderson was an SOB at heart. #24 #Jericho #LongLiveJohnstonGreen #
• @dmataconis Watching #Fringe you'll get to see him get cooked to death. in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis *Watch* #Fringe that is. in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis Season 1, episode 19 to be exact. in reply to dmataconis #
• Bah, they killed off the character played by Christina Cox; bastards. #
• If only the Secret Service agents were as well-trained as Jack Bauer… #24 #
• RT @DaveinTexas: The hell do they think "Trinity" refers to, a character in a movie? #
• @dmataconis Yep. in reply to dmataconis #
• You better watch it Dana Walsh, Jack Bauer is going to throw your ass out of an airlock. #24 #
• Can't wait until Charles Logan shows up. #24 #
• Trinity University's motto: "E Tribus Unum (From Three, One)" #
• @gabrielmalor Casino Royale was great, but Quantum? Not so much. in reply to gabrielmalor #
• Let's see, #Fringe restarts April 1 and #SGU restarts on April 2. Am I missing anything else? #
• @gabrielmalor The whole plot was hording water, not the most interesting thing I have ever seen. in reply to gabrielmalor #
• @gabrielmalor The revenge subplots were a lot more interesting. in reply to gabrielmalor #
• Stop giving ideas to every guy that follows you. RT @mkhammer: So, I've been at Voyeur all day. What'd I miss? #
• @dmataconis How old is that? in reply to dmataconis #
• Tip: It would be a great time to do a terrorist attack in D.C. since THEY HAVE NO REDUNDANCY IN THEIR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM. That is all. #
• @dmataconis I am so glad that the closest I come to D.C. is the Rappahannock River. :) in reply to dmataconis #
• In other news, I have an exam I need to study for. #

• I really wish some of my instructors would post more of my grades on Blackboard… #
• Ive done my sentence/But committed no crime/And bad mistakes/Ive made a few
  Ive had my share of sand kicked in my face/But Ive come through #
• Does anyone have a list of Congressmen that signed the AIPAC letter? #
• RT @allahpundit: The most hated filmmaker in America http://is.gd/b4drJ #
• @dmataconis Stop making excuses. in reply to dmataconis #

• I really wish some of my instructors would post more of my grades on Blackboard… #
• Ive done my sentence/But committed no crime/And bad mistakes/Ive made a few
  Ive had my share of sand kicked in my face/But Ive come through #
• Does anyone have a list of Congressmen that signed the AIPAC letter? #
• RT @allahpundit: The most hated filmmaker in America http://is.gd/b4drJ #
• @dmataconis Stop making excuses. in reply to dmataconis #

• Well, thanks to a weird dream, I'm up now. #
• RT @overlawyered: Australian government to U.S.-based website: remove that hate speech or face prosecution: Not just… http://bit.ly/bc6ik1 #
• RT @dmataconis: Don't forget at 8:30pm local time, celebrate Human Achievement Hour http://bit.ly/beqVxJ #EarthHour #HAH2010 #tcot #tlot #

From The WaPo:

Personal data on 3.3 million people have been stolen from the company that guarantees student loans in Virginia and two other states, authorities said.

The theft occurred last weekend at the headquarters in St. Paul, Minn, of ECMC, which has been the designated federal student loan guaranty agency in Virginia since 1996. The nonprofit company also guarantees loans in Oregon and Connecticut.

Information that was taken included names, addresses, birth dates and social security numbers, ECMC said Friday in a news release. It said no bank or other financial account information was taken.

“This is old-fashioned” theft, rather than any form of computer hacking, Paul Kelash, a spokesman for ECMC, said in an interview.

The news release said the theft involved “portable media with personally identifiable information.” Kelash declined to describe the object taken or to give other details of the theft. “All I can say is that it is a portable media device,” he said.

Oh, yeah, that’s comforting. Someone didn’t have a crappy online security system in place, they just let someone walk off with a thumb-drive with your personal information on it.

Question: Why the frak is that information on a thumb-drive, or any type of “portable media”, in the first place?!

Ladies and gentlemen, this will be what’s going to happen to your medical records in a few years thanks to ObamaCare.

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

• To quote Die Hard: "What have we here, gentlemen? The police have themselves an RV." http://is.gd/aZNn0 #
• Does anyone know if it possible for Excel to tell the difference between a null (empty) cell and a 0? #
• RT @dmataconis: #24 cancelled ? I blame Dana Walsh. Worst. 24 Character. Ever. (yes even worse than Kim, or the cougar) #
• RT @HAH_2010: capitalists do it with the lights on (unlike enviros http://ow.ly/1rrhL) celebrate human achievement hour on Saturday night… #
• RT @allahpundit: Silver lining if Duke wins the tourney? Atheism proved correct. #

No, not really. I have previously posted on her inability to read the very short Article III of the United States Constitution, now it looks she’s missed a whole amendment:

Additionally, we must repeal the income tax. It is unconstitutional and it’s abuse of power has become legendary. A flat tax would set every American free from the tedium of filing complicated tax returns and be true to our Declaration of Independence which declares that all men are created equal and should be treated as such. No one should be punished through confiscatory taxation for success while, conversely, rewarding sloth.

The income tax is unconstitutional you say? What about that pesky 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

You know, I’ve heard stories about crazies that believe the “Titles of Nobility Amendment” was actually ratified, but I’ve never heard anyone say the 16th Amendment was never ratified. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

• Great, a new form of spam: YouTube spam. #
• @Gwatson0008 You spelled the word "against" incorrectly. in reply to Gwatson0008 #
• Note: Firefox starts to run a little slow when it's been open for 3 days and it's using 600 mb of memory. #
• @dmataconis It was better when she was shooting the guy in season 4 with the AR-15! in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis I was hoping we would get at least one season without a mole in CTU/FBI (or whatever), so, yes, please kill Dana. in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis Undercover? in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis Ah, maybe… in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis Agreed. Renee on the other hand… :) in reply to dmataconis #
• @vpaige So Cuccinelli is a racist now? To paraphrase @dmataconis: Post-racial politics my ass. …And wasn't Bull Connor a Democrat? in reply to vpaige #
• Anyway, I'm on the road again… #
• RT @battlestarwiki: RT @AirlockAlpha: #Caprica Ratings Inching Up, #Syfy Says … http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7233 #
• @dmataconis Screw the grandchildren, I'm feeling pretty frakked myself. in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis Out of curiosity, why do you waste time and watch it? I don't know about you, but all that stuff does is raise my blood pressure in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis Ah, smart man! in reply to dmataconis #
• So much for budget deficits, how much does each of those pens cost? #
• RT @gabrielmalor: Bizarro World: CA county worried marijuana legalization will "devastate" pot growing operations. http://is.gd/aUr47 #
• @andylevy No hablo Latin. in reply to andylevy #
• Yes, Joe, we know it's a big f***ing deal: You just nationalized 1/6th of the United States economy, so thanks for telling us. #
• @dmataconis Hopefully all those folks die. Sorry, but that's how I feel about the issue. in reply to dmataconis #
• @dmataconis RT @AoSHQ: Oh Boy. Republicans Likely To Run On "Repeal And Replace" http://bit.ly/bAKgWM #
• RT @walterolson: One police bullet might turn lovable mutt into fearsome "pit bull" [@Popehat] http://is.gd/aUEF1 #
• Why is the back-light on my netboook acting weird? One spot on the screen is brighter than the rest. #
• RT @hotairblog: Heart-ache: NFL abandons sudden death rule for postseason: On the very day that O-Care [...] Read … http://bit.ly/azIgiH #
• RT @frashure: Miley Cyrus as a mentor on #Idol Shouldn't they get someone that can, I don't know…sing? #
• Heh, terrorism instructor wants to talk about anti-abortion terrorism, but is smart enough to say she doesn't want to talk about abortion. #

• @vpaige So, anyone that disagrees with you is a plant? Or an insurance company lobbyist? Or a racist? Anything I miss? (spelling corrected) #
• RT @bearingdrift: Web: Statements from Forbes and Wittman on healthcare passage http://bit.ly/a6X34F #
• RT @DrewMTips: Nancy says we have a right to follow our passions and have that subsidized…make mine a tall redhead please. #
• RT @frashure: If I weren't a strict non-alcoholic, I would be plastered right now. #
• Is it poetic that I'm watching "Serenity" right now? #
• "A year from now, ten, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people…better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running." #
• Is Chase using a cover of Sting's "Brand New Day" in their ads or is just me? #
• Is Chase using a cover of Sting's "Brand New Day" in their ads or is it just me? #
• Fact: Jack Bauer doesn't need a whole Roman cohort to form a testudo. #
• And who is this douche bag NSA tech? He looks familiar. #
• And hasn't Chloe killed someone before? Season 4 maybe? She and a witness got ambushed and the field agent that was with them was killed? #
• Wikipedia for season 4, episode 19: http://is.gd/aTDSP She blew the guy away with an AR-15 as I recall. #
• Renee to the rescue in 3, 2, 1… #
• Amazing, thousands of rounds from the CTU guys and Jack, and Renee takes out guys with six shots. #
• How freakin' stupid is this crap? #
• Sure, no one is going to notice the smell. #
• Wow, most shocking CTU double-cross since Jamey…oh wait, no it's not. #
• RT @dmataconis: And now I say with pleasure Dana Walsh must die #24 #
• Why does this guy, who was at a Washington Metro public hearing asking for higher fares, look like he was crying? #

• @dmataconis Um, should what exactly do you suggest? Armed insurrection? (hyperbole for effect) in reply to dmataconis #
• To quote John Crichton: “We are so frelled.” #
• Maybe I should channel Rand and think about how this is a good thing since it will increase the rate of America destroying itself… #
• Does anyone remember the good ol’ days when the History Channel had nothing but Nazis and Imperial Japanese on it? #
• Am I the only one that has more important things to do than watch pretentious windbags be pretentious windbags? #
• RT @deejaymcguire: Queen Elizabeth II called; said based on today, 1776 must have been a big misunderstanding, will take us back. #
• RT @andylevy: THE PACIFIC was excellent tonight. And a great way to put today’s overblown rhetoric in perspective. #
• Rampant murders, robberies, and drug dealing and the @RichmondPolice have nothing better to do than bother people parking near alleys. #
• @DrewMTips Didn’t Goebbels say something similar? in reply to DrewMTips #
• RT @AoSHQ: Stupak Takes His 30 Pieces of Silver In Airport Grants http://bit.ly/9r4f4g #
• RT @walterolson: How do actual outlays for govt health programs match w/estimates? If lucky, only +30%,if unlucky +1600% http://is.gd/aSh7y #
• @vpagie So, anyone that disagrees with you is a plant? Or an insurance company lobbyist? Or a racist? Anything I miss? #

Geez, her ‘new’ site is just awful.

First: It’s using WordPress. Now, I have no problem with someone using WordPress for a professional website, the problem here is the version of WordPress she’s using is five versions old. Do I really need to explain the problem of using outdated software on a website? Does she want someone to hack her website?

Second: The basic design. The most important question most people will be asking when hearing she’s running is “Who Is Krystal Ball?”. The problem? That question is answered at the bottom of the homepage of her website with white text on a gray background that’s barely readable.

Third: The images. Instead of using text on her “about” page, or her issues pages, she’s uses images. First, when the text is part of the image, that means that it’s not being indexed by Google or any search engine. The search engines can’t read the text from the images.

Second, these images are huge! Instead of using JPEG compression, she’s using PNGs. PNGs are great for something that’s just plain text, but these images combine both images in the background, as well as text, which make them huge.  For example, the two images that make up her “about” page are a total of 783.12KB. According to one website, it would take someone on a 56K dial-up connection 254.14 seconds to download the whole page.

Is Krystal Ball so ignorant of the district she’s running in that she doesn’t know a large portion of it still has to rely on dial-up internet? And what exactly is she playing these ‘consultants’, like Lowell Feld at Blue Virginia, for?

Dead according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

He can say “hi” to Mark Evonitz on that special level of hell.

Because he’s so damn believable, right?

For those that haven’t been following this story, a student along with her father and grandmother were arrested at Caroline County High School last week following an incident where they allegedly assaulted two sheriff’s deputies, as well as school administration personnel.

According to a reporting by WRIC (Channel 8) in Richmond, the father had previously been arrested twice on school grounds after refusing to leave. According to online court records he already has a pending assault and battery charge as well.

But that doesn’t stop esteemed local reporter Portsia Smith from repeating his claims that the sheriff’s deputies attacked his mother (the student’s grandmother) without provocation, and that’s when he stepped in to help his mother:

The father said everything was fine and they were leaving until his daughter realized she left her purse in the building.

He said his mother and daughter went back to get it while he stayed behind talking to one of the officers.

Then he said he saw his 69-year-old mother thrown to the ground by a sheriff’s deputy. His mother said she didn’t know what was going on.

Did our esteemed local reporter seek comment from the Sheriff’s Office or the deputies involved? Nope.

Did she ask for a copy of the surveillance tape, which captured the incident, from either the school system or the Sheriff’s Office? Of course not.

Did she bother contacting any of the people who witnessed the incident, such as the administration personnel? Nah, that’s too much work.

Hopefully, the deputies sue the father, as well as this incompetent ‘reporter’, for libel when this is all said and done.