uvAggravator2.0

Did you see the latest TV spot that our congressman tossed out?  In it, he's touting his vote in favor of Obama's stimulus plan ... uh ... his support for Obama's cap-and-trade jobs killer ... uh ... his opposition to a balanced budget amendment ... uh ... his support of Obama's acquiring General Motors ... uh ... his vote in favor of Obama's Cash for Clunkers program his effort to create jobs in Southwest Virginia?  One can only laugh at the chutzpah.  Laughter, of course, being a healthier response than rage.

You can view his ad here (courtesy of that loyal Democrat puppy dog, Brian Patton).

Here's what should chap everyone's backside.  Boucher makes the following statement in his 32 second fantasy piece:

"And today there are 41,000 more jobs in the district than when my work began."

Does that even pass the smell test?

Does Southwest Virginia look to you like its brimming with new jobs?

If we are prospering (because of this joker's efforts to bring employers to the region), how does he explain this?

Region may lose seats when legislative districts' lines are redrawn
By Michael Sluss, Roanoke Times

Richmond -- The boundaries of three congressional districts that cover parts of Western Virginia will change and the region's General Assembly representation could shrink after state lawmakers draw new legislative districts next year.

The region could lose at least one seat in the 100-member House of Delegates when the General Assembly draws new districts to account for a decade's worth of population shifts.

The boundaries of three congressional districts in the region could change dramatically. The 9th District represented by Democrat Rick Boucher of Abingdon, which already stretches from the coalfields to the Alleghany Highlands, is about 67,000 people short of ideal size. State Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, is challenging Boucher this year, fully expecting that his home will be in the 9th District by next year. [link]

Ask yourself: If Boucher's doing such a swell job of bringing jobs to Southwest Virginia ("41,000 more than when my work began ..."), why is the 9th District emptying out?

Only a fool would believe his claim.

And only a cynical Washington politician would have the temerity to make it.

For every entry-level-paying call center job that Rick Boucher has brought to his district, ten quality jobs have been lost.  For every Echostar or Cingular, there's a Mack Truck and an Ethan Allen and a Celanese Acetate and a Johnson & Johnson and a Lear Corp. and a Dan River and a Tultex and a Spring Ford Industries and a National Textiles and a Buster Brown and a Natalie Knitting Mills and an American of Martinsville and a Virginia Glove and a Virginia House Furniture and a Lea Industries and an  ArvinMerito and an Alcoa Wheels and a Rowe Furniture and a VF Knitwear and a Vaughan Furniture and a Webb Furniture and a Burlington Industries and a Renfro and a Hooker Furniture and a Bristol Compressors and a Stanley Furniture and a Dana Corporation and a Thomasville Furniture and a Sara Lee Branded Apparel and a Bassett Furniture Industries and a Pulaski Furniture ...

... and tomorrow brings the prospect of only more misery.

So quit jerking us around, Rick.  If jobs are your highest priority, you've failed.

It's time to let someone else try to turn things around.

"Brutal triage" is how the New York Times describes the Democrats' approach to several House races, including one right here in Virginia:With the midterm campaign entering its final two months, Democrats acknowledged that several races could quickly move out of their reach, including re-election bids by Representatives Betsy Markey of Colorado, Tom Perriello of Virginia, Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio

Ever wonder why it is that America's unions (except for those dealing with government employees) are vanishing from this earth?  The main reason, it appears, is that their leaders aren't all that bright.  Get this (from a Morgan Griffith for Congress press release yesterday):

GOP candidate denied entry to union picnic
Coeburn _ Union organizers of an event in deep southwest Virginia today turned away several Republicans, despite inviting them a month ago. The group denied entry included the candidate for the Ninth Congressional seat, Morgan Griffith.

In a letter dated August 3, the Southwest Virginia Branch of the Western Virginia Labor Federation extended the invitation for Griffith and other delegates from southwest Virginia to the Coeburn picnic for their union membership. The Central Labor Council is made up of members from Associated Postal Workers Union, Communication Workers of America, National Coalition of Public Safety Officers, United Autoworkers, United Food Workers, United Steel Workers, and United Mine Workers of America.

The Ninth Congressional candidate was even invited to speak at the event for approximately 20 minutes by Valeria Castle-Stanley who is listed as the union group's District 9 Congressional Coordinator.

Griffith campaign officials had not received word that they had been denied access. Mick Bransfield, campaign manager for Griffith, says he had been in contact by phone but was never told not to show up. "We thought the picnic was open to us, and made an effort to drive from an appearance in Scott County and was hoping for an equal, fair opportunity like any other official."

James Gibbs, International At-Large VP of the United Mine Workers, and Mike Kennedy, the vice president of Local 2204 of the Communications Workers of America, both met Griffith at the gate. Kennedy has been outspoken in the past that President Obama is a friend of coal here in southwest Virginia.*

"I am very disappointed in their decision not to allow me an opportunity to speak to the group. We are at a very important time in the history in this country when dealing with the proposed Cap and Trade legislation of Obama and Pelosi. The bill will negatively affect coal production here in southwest Virginia," says Griffith.

What is ironic here, according to the Republican, is the fact that his opponent - the incumbent Democratic Congressman, Rick Boucher - was also invited and expected to attend. "He voted for and even helped write Cap and Trade - thus affecting these same people that turned us away today."

"The Congressman," says Griffith, "should welcome a friendly debate of issues especially when he is trying to distance himself from the D.C. group of Obama and Pelosi."

May God have mercy.

* Kennedy can say Obama is a friend of coal.  He's in the Communications Workers of America union.  It's not his employer that the president has threatened to bankrupt.

Recall this weblog post from March 1st in which I detailed the starvation of a deer on my property as the direct result of the horrific winter we had just experienced.  In fact, when the spring thaw finally came and the snow receded, I found, in all, three deer carcasses on my property.  From their appearances I would suggest that all three died of exposure to the weather.  None had been brought down by a predator (their skeletal remains were pretty much in tact) and chances were good that none had been shot by a hunter the previous season as all three were just yearlings.

Three deer killed off on my little 22 acres.  22 acres that border the massive Jefferson National Forest.  How many might there have been in total?

I bring this up for a reason.  An article I came upon in the Wytheville Enterprise last night (that doesn't appear to be in its on-line edition but can be found here) got me to wondering if the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries needs to find itself some new "deer project coordinators."   From "Feeding Deer Illegal"):

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VD-GIF) Deer Project Coordinators Matt Knox and Nelson Lafon noted when the regulation [prohibiting the feeding of deer under certain circumstances and depending on the locale] first took effect in 2006 that, for more than 20 years, the practice of feeding deer had expanded across the eastern United States among both deer hunters and the non-hunting general public.  The most common reason for feeding deer is to improve their nutrition and to supplement their habitat's ability to support more deer; in other words, to increase the carrying capacity for deer.

According to Knox, many people feed deer because they believe it will keep them from starving, but this is not a legitimate reason to feed deer in Virginia.  In Virginia deer die-offs due to winter starvation have been almost non-existent.  As a case in point, this past winter's harsh snowstorms apparently caused little deer mortality. [emphasis mine]

The only response I have to that is this: Maybe these "deer project coordinators" need to get out in deer country more often.  As mentioned above, three deer died last winter on my tiny piece of wilderness property alone.  Extrapolate from that the possible number of deer that succumbed across Virginia's mountain region to the terrible winter we had and you get an idea as to how bad the die-off was.

Besides, here in Bland (I live with the deer every day) the birthrate this summer was way down from past years (I regularly see only three fawns whereas in years past there would be at least a dozen roaming the countryside).  I can only attribute that to there being far fewer does to repopulate.

We can quibble over whether this deer, found just below my barn in February, died of exposure to the extreme cold or to starvation because of a lack of forage because of there being a foot of snow on the ground for weeks on end.  But there is no doubt in my mind that she died from causes that were directly related to the weather.

My suggestion?  These "experts" need to get out more.

Governor Bob McDonnell plans to continue the bizarre practice - sprung from Prohibitionist piety run amok - of rationing booze in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia.  Whereas the rationing was done up to the present through a plan that only Joseph Stalin could love - "state stores" - McDonnell proposes rationing through licensing.

What could go wrong?

McDonnell's push to privatize Va. liquor stores could add tax on drinks in bars
By Anita Kumar, Washington Post

Richmond - Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), scrambling to make ends meet in his plan to privatize Virginia's 332 state-run liquor stores, is considering adding a fee on alcoholic drinks sold in restaurants or bars to help make up the $250 million in annual taxes and profits that state stores currently generate, according to Richmond sources familiar with the still-evolving plan.

Under the version of the proposal discussed with industry officials Friday, the drinks surcharge, which would be imposed either as a tax on customers or on restaurants' liquor receipts, would be part of a package of new fees including a per-gallon charge to wholesalers.

McDonnell is considering auctioning up to 1,000 licenses to the highest bidders. The proposal, which would privatize alcohol sales from wholesale to distribution to retail, would allow Virginians to buy liquor at private liquor stores, grocery and convenience stores, and big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Costco.  [link]

Would his plan privatize it?  Yes.  Free it from the heavy hand of government?  No.  Why license booze vendors?  Why limit the marketplace?   Why 1,000 government-approved business establishments and not 1,001?

Dream with me:

Did the proliferation of fast-food restaurants come about because the government limited their numbers and locations?  Doesn't the state of Virginia benefit greatly from tax revenue generated by sales taxes coming from all those McDonald's eateries on every other street corner?  How about the government follow the fast food model and allow proliferation wherever the profit motive allows?

No.  By God, we're going to have 1,000 liquor stores and 1,000 only.  So says the politburo.

Now McDonnell (if this story has any truth to it; it is coming from the oft-wrong and politically skewed Washington Post) has run the numbers and determined that the possibility exists that our government's continued but altered choke-hold on the liquor business won't generate enough tax revenue.

Who'd have guessed?

Me?  I'm for the free exercise of free enterprise, baby:  Hey, want some Black Jack with that Big Mac?

The government would have to build a bigger money storage box to hold all the tax revenue.

Better hurry:

Customers get last taste of City Market Building favorites before renovations
The food just won't be the same.

It's a fad.  And fads come and go.

Speaking of global warming, Investor's Business Daily:

Just as fears over Alar toxicity, destruction of the Amazon rain forest, a new ice age and other apocalyptic warnings lost their relevance, the global warming scare is destined to fade entirely from the public mind.

The editorial could have added acid rain, spotted owls, and ozone hole depletion to the list of dire warnings that came and went.

Not that those who came close to destroying civilization will ever admit that they were wrong.  They'll simply migrate to a new apocalypse.  That's what fads are all about.

I can't wait for the next cosmic cataclysm.  Life is so boring otherwise.

The civilized world begins to worry about government instability and about food getting to where there is a dramatic shortage.  For the love of God:

U.N. Raises Concerns as Global Food Prices Jump
By Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times

United Nations — With memories still fresh of food riots set off by spiking prices just two years ago, agricultural experts on Friday cast a wary eye on the steep rise in the cost of wheat prompted by a Russian export ban and the questions looming over harvests in other parts of the world because of drought or flooding.

Food prices rose 5 percent globally during August, according to the United Nations, spurred mostly by the higher cost of wheat, and the first signs of unrest erupted as 10 people died in Mozambique during clashes ignited partly by a 30 percent leap in the cost of bread.

“You are dealing with an unstable situation,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. [link]

Unstable indeed.  But forget that bit about "questions looming over harvests in other parts of the world because of drought or flooding."  As this very same article makes clear: "The wheat crop this year globally is also the third highest on record, according to the F.A.O. ...  If you look at the numbers globally, the Americans, the Europeans and the Australians can make up the supply ..."

The problem has to do with irrational decision-making on the part of the Russian government (a ban on exports on rather dubious grounds) and with an erratic supply chain - which is overseen by governments.

Does that ban (and its purpose) sound familiar?  Can you say "Obama suspends offshore exploratory drilling"?  The Heritage Foundation provides this graphic prediction (click on the image to enlarge it):


How will those 41 million Americans who are living off of food stamps afford to put fuel in their cars?

Those in government don't know.  They don't care.

So, because of government intrusions into the marketplace, the price of food - FOOD! - is skyrocketing in areas of the world that cannot afford it, and experts are predicting that, because of the U.S. government's temporary ban on off-shore oil exploration, the price of gasoline will explode, forcing even more Americans to become dependent on a handout.

There are still a lot of people out there who believe that government can solve problems.  I'd be happy if government would simply stop creating them.

In Virginia's 9th Congressional District Democrat Rick Boucher still leads Repubican Morgan Griffith.  This according to the latest poll results from SurveyUSA.  But the lead is shortening:

Democrat Boucher Keeps VA-09 Blue: In an election for US House of Representatives in Virginia's 9th Congressional District today, 09/03/10, incumbent Democrat Rick Boucher defeats Republican State House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith 50% to 40%, according to this latest exclusive WDBJ-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA.

Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll released 6 weeks ago, little has changed; Boucher is down a nominal 2 points, Griffith is up a nominal 1 point. The contest remains tied among men; among women, Boucher leads by 22 points, essentially unchanged. 1 in 4 Republicans continue to cross over to vote for the Democrat. Independents remain divided. A third party candidate in the race, Jeremiah Heaton, gets 9% of the vote among Independents, 5% of the vote overall. 

Two things: (1) When has Boucher ever polled 50% or under? (soon to be under.)  Never. (2) Heaton is nothing more than a spoiler and he knows it.  His support will remain around 5% - until election day when adult decisions have to be made.  Most all those Heaton voters will break for Griffith.  There's no way they'll go back to Boucher.  Too many bridges have been burned.  That in itself will make this a nail-biter.

There's a lot of time left.  And a lot of undecided voters to win over.  This is going to be fun to watch.  Stay on him, man.  Don't let go.

I usually find the New York Times’s Charles Blow something of a predictable blowhard on racial issues, which is what he mainly writes about, but his short piece yesterday accusing the United States of being a “Religious Outlier” reached entirely new depths of utter incomprehensibility.

Indeed, the results of Blow’s attempt “to chart religiosity against gross domestic product per capita, and to group countries by their size and dominant religions” are so bizarre that his chart actually disproves an old cliché.

The cliché goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Assuming that this holds true for charts [Blow writes], here is mine.

Take a look, and I think you’ll agree that it certainly doesn’t hold true for this chart, although I suppose even this weird chart may be worth more than 1000 (or more) Blow words on the subject.

Barack Obama yesterday (from "Unemployment climbs to 9.6 percent"):

As I've said from the start, there is no quick fix to the worst recession we've experienced since the Great Depression. The hard truth is that it took years to create our current economic problems, and it will take more time than any of us would like to repair the damage. Millions of our neighbors are living with that painfully every day.

Barack Obama back when he was planning to keep unemployment from hitting 8%:

First, we've got to act now to create good paying jobs. We've already lost three-quarters of a million jobs this year, and some experts say unemployment may rise to 8% by the end of next year. That's why I've proposed a new American jobs tax credit for each new employee that companies hire here in the United States over the next two years. That's how we'll create good, new jobs here in Virginia and all across America.

These are the steps that we must take - right now - to start getting our economy back on track.

Questions: 3.8 million Americans who have lost their jobs since Obama began taking those steps - right then - want to know: What might have happened had he done nothing? Could it be any worse?

As Obama moves to ban the importation of 850,000 guns that collectors would otherwise snap up in a heartbeat, a ban whose foundational principle seems to be that one of them might fall into the wrong hands, it's worth remembering this, from the NRA:

This week, Fox News reported that it couldn't get a straight answer from the State Department about its decision in March to disapprove the importation of more than 800,000 M1 Garand rifles and M1 carbines from South Korea.

According to Fox, the State Department claimed that the rifles might be used "for illicit purposes."

But when asked to explain, State passed the buck to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which passed it to the Department of Justice, which passed it back to State.

The anti-gun Brady Campaign didn't hesitate to give Fox an answer, however. "Guns that can take high-capacity magazines are a threat to public safety," the group's Dennis Henigan told reporter Maxim Lott.

[T]he "public safety" fear of these guns is irrational. Today, Americans own more Garands and carbines than ever before. We also own more semi-automatic rifles in general than ever before, and more self-defense handguns with standard magazines that hold more than 10 rounds than ever before. Yet despite gun ban groups' predictions, the nation's violent crime rate is at a 35-year low.

The words "the Brady Campaign" and "irrational" often seem to make their way together into stories like this, don't they?  To that mix we can add the word "Obama."

But then we already knew that, didn't we?

You want to know why so many Americans are uncomfortable with the 9/11 Victory Mosque being planned for Ground Zero?  It's mostly, I think, a regular dose of this kind of headline in the news - "Muslim cleric calls for beheading of Dutch politician" - coupled with a total lack of outrage and denunciation from the American Muslim community when such terrorism - and its advocacy - are perpetrated.

When they get their house in order, we'll talk about a 9/11 mosque.

"What you see most clearly in the academic world are people who don't think that this country is a great country." ~ Thomas Sowell (Just another hayseed, reactionary rube?)

Something many readers may not know about Dr. Sowell - he grew up in Harlem and shares that, during the time he attended public schools in Harlem, they "were among the best in the country."

Once again, piercing, insightful, revealing, and damning. Sowell is a treasure.

http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

There is a very interesting discussion going on over at Pyromaniacs (an excellent blog; I sure hope you're reading it!) that is well worth your time. The comments, especially, are very interesting, but I'm not at all certain that some of us may not be talking at cross purposes. Now,...

The leaks are sprouting in advance of the formal release of the Governor's plan to privatize the state's ABC stores. From the look of things, it looks like a bevy of new taxes and fees will be on tap:...the plan proposed two sources of revenue -- an excise tax of $12.50 and a "buyout fee" of $2.25 a gallon -- to produce most of the annual revenue, about $160 million. However, that number could

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Roanoke Times, 9-1-10, Pg 1 & 16: Front Page: Cuccinelli rebuked on getting information from UVa. Pg 16: Editorial: Judge shoots down Cuccinelli.
Small print: The Judge said indeed the AG can investigate fraud, but first he must show some evidence of a crime in the UVA climate witch hunt.
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The Va AG request for information from UVa:
Whoa there Cuccinelli – stop your court action to get data from UVa.
We liberals wouldn’t want the public to see the basis for Prof Mann to get millions of dollars of taxpayer money to pursue the Gore-Hypothesis and its predetermined-science-outcomes. Forget all that open-government and transparency stuff we constantly throw at folks and issues we oppose – this is different!
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/03/obamas-epas-conflict-with-virginia-ag.html
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The Cap&Tax challenge:
Whoa there Cuccinelli – stop explaining to the public the impacts of Cap&Tax on utility bills.
We liberals are looking forward to government mandated massive increases in the cost of all energy related products and services and the resulting loss in jobs. We will use our liberal-progressive-media to hammer the utilities and manufacturing and service industries as the villains for price increases and direct the public’s attention away from the real cause. After all, somehow, it must be Bush’s fault anyway.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/07/perriello-boucher-pelosi-vote-for-cap.html
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The ObamaCare personal mandates:
Whoa there Cuccinelli – . Stop your lawsuits against the federal government in support of a bipartisan Virginia law that prohibits individuals to be forced by law to buy ObamaCare products.
We liberals are pleased that ObamaCare mandates each American business and person to comply with its demands, costs, bureaucracy and enforcement by the IRS. After all, personal responsibility was just a fad and socialism is a much better method of managing and directing the masses. Haven’t you ever read Karl Marx?
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-obamacare-lies-and-deception.html
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Christ & Christmas:
Roanoke Times, Editorial, 9-3-10, Pg 13: A church-state minefield. Localities shouldn’t take Cuccinelli’s opinion on Christmas displays as a green light. Officials who want to “put the Christ back in Christmas” should hire a lawyer.
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Whoa there Cuccinelli – We progressive-liberals know this country wasn’t founded by people who placed God above all else. This was a secular country founded by atheists and agnostics. Ignore all those prayers, emblems, icons, crosses and that thing about being “created equal” by a supreme entity. That’s all revisionist history propagated by those evil bible-banging folks in Lynchburg.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/12/fake-war.html
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The Abortion Clinic Cleanliness Initiative
Whoa there Cuccinelli – Stop demanding that abortion clinics meet the same standards of cleanliness that other outpatient facilities must meet including inspections to ensure medical standards are being met.
We liberals don’t worry about abortion facilities meeting medical standards as long as they get the job done.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/12/roscoe-p-coaltrain-reynolds.html
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/03/teen-abortions.html
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Prior Items:
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The Roanoke Times Marginalizing Va AG Cuccinelli
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/08/roanoke-times-marginalizing-va-ag.html
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Today’s column points out that, unlike the Virginia Information Technologies Agencies, newspapers never make mista

Wapo’s Eugene Robinson says the anti-Democratic mood

isn’t an “electoral wave,” it’s a temper tantrum.

Seems like every time there’s a huge GOP tidal wave, pundits call voters crybabies.

Because the voters, not having gotten their way, supposedly are lashing out.

The pundits themselves would never do that, of course. . . .

When it comes to roads. According to this report. . . .

In 1990, I was about to get married, and I knew there was something wrong with me, but didn't know what. I went to see old Dr. Shaffer, who referred me to a gastroenterologist, who figured out that I have Crohn's disease, and who has been my good friend and doctor for twenty years. The Crohn's diagnosis was more than confirmed in November 1996 or thereabouts when a Bristol surgeon removed eighteen inches of bad guts, that were tormenting me.

Over the years, I've taken some medicines that were gentle and did nothing, steroids that made me gain a pound day, other medicines that say on the label they can kill me, I've endured iron shots with the big needle, given myself B-12 shots with the little needles, munched on chewable children's vitamins, shared yogurt with my dogs almost every day. So far I've taken a pass on Remicade and Humira; maybe I get too many advertisements for plaintiff's products liability seminars.

Probably the last 150 pizzas have given me cause for regret, but I'll eat one every now and then. Green peppers, raw onions, orange juice, chocolate, bearnaise and hollandaise are all taboo, but I break bad and have some sometimes. My weight has fluctuated between 145 and 205, and so there are both fat boy and skinny man suits in my closet. I eat too fast, and often have dessert. On the upside, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are no problem at all.

I've met some lawyers and witnesses with the same problem, and they are always relieved to find out what we have common. "Oh, I don't have to tell you about it," they say - about for example the perils of sitting around in a deposition for hours. Say, I flew to Europe and back a couple of times, imagine that. They could. One of my cousins has it. She and her lawyer husband Steve just flew to China and back to meet their new baby. When I heard this news, I thought about that plane ride.

I've been to a few meetings where the stomach rumblings were so loud I was surprised they were not made a part of the official minutes. ("... and Mr. Minor said grklbklmrkmogl.") One such occasion was at a VBA board meeting, when I was seated by Cheshire Eveleigh, who merely turned and gave me her broadest, crinkliest smile, leaving me no choice but to smile back. In this (and all matters, by the way), I recommend following her example.

A lot of my lawyer buddies or courthouse friends or even clients whom I see just every once in a while keep me up to date on how I'm doing, or at least whether I look better or worse than the last time they saw me. My assistant generally schedules my hearings and depositions for the afternoons, since the mornings are the iffiest part of the day (and I was a night owl even before). When I heard that a friend of mine's son was diagnosed with Crohn's, I said tell him it hasn't been fun but it hasn't held me back from doing what I wanted and going places. There are still some days though when the bad guts flat out betray me, like last November, and today, which gave me the notion to write this post.

I don't know.  I have to wonder if the reason global warming theory has crashed and burned - as it most assuredly has - has less to do with the findings that are exposing the slipshod, amateurish, and hyper-partisan methods used by the IPCC to declare warming (or "climate change") (or "the greenhouse effect") (or "the inconvenient truth"), and more to do with the fact that the head of the IPCC - the point man for the global warming enthusiasm crowd - looks way too much like the lead character in the the movie Machete:


I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to meet either one of these goons in a dark alley.

Believe in global warming or I'll cut your eyes out and pee on your brain!

Not a way to influence the debate, I don't think.

Now that he's voted for it and it has become law ...

Wyden Defects on ObamaCare
... Ron Wyden is against it.

For the love of God.

That, unfortunately, was long ago.  Today?  He dines in the company of America's loony left and seems quite comfortable in doing so.  You'll want to remember that when he comes to you with hat in hand in 2012.

And he's not above working to keep the worst of them in office with him either.  You know that PAC that he created back in 2006 that he calls the "Born Fighting PAC"?  Check out this list of politicians who received campaign contributions from our once-mainstream senator (as reported by OpenSecrets.org).  It's a Who's Who of leftist Washington:

Yup, that's Harry "The war is lost" Reid at the tail end of that list.  Accompanied by fellow socialists Barbara Boxer, Patrick Leahy, and Patty Murray. (You know the name Martha Coakley from the Senate campaign that took place in Massachusetts to replace the departed Ted Kennedy in which she got her ass handed to her by Scott Brown.  You will also recall that she's as leftist as they come.)  I'm not sure why Brad Ellsworth was graced with a Webb campaign donation.  Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the Indiana Democrat needs it bad, having voted the Obama/Webb agenda, and now finds his election prospects in big trouble.

Anyway, file this information in the memory banks for future use.  We'll be reviewing this bit of history - along with Webb's close working relationship with Barack Obama - come 2012.

Naaaaah.  Let's go after the sheriff who is the only person on the planet actually doing something about the lawlessness that pervades the entire country:

Feds sue Arizona sheriff in civil rights probe
Guess that shows you whose side Obama's on.

When I saw that TV ad the other night, I knew it was an act of desperation on the part of 5th District Congressman Tom Perriello.  (A side note: Why is it liberals consider the act of raising taxes a bad thing when they're out scrounging for votes, accusing their conservative opponents of ... preparing to raise our taxes!, but find no problem with tax increases when they are - the rest of the year - raising them like madmen?)

So why the desperation?  Why is Perriello resorting to scare tactics all of a sudden?

Here's why. From SurveyUSA:

No Purchase for Perriello in VA-05, Another Democratic Incumbent Congressman in Trouble: In an election for US House of Representatives in Virginia's 5th Congressional District today, 09/02/10, Republican State Senator Robert Hurt defeats incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello 61% to 35%, according to this latest exclusive WDBJ-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA.

Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll released 6 weeks ago, little has changed; Hurt is up a nominal 3 points; Perriello is flat. Hurt has increased his lead among men, younger voters, independents, and lower-income voters, and now is at or above 62% among each of those groups.

Perriello, who defeated 6-term Republican Virgil Goode by 727 votes in 2008, today is above 50% only among blacks, Democrats, moderates, liberals, those with unfavorable opinions of the Tea Party movement, and pro-choice voters -- none of which are majority groups among likely voters in Virginia's 5th district. 

Perriello, the incumbent, finds himself falling further behind!  If that's possible.  It's now 61% to 35%.  That's beyond a rout.  But will it hold up?  We'll see.

In the meantime, one has to wonder if Tommy Boy is having second thoughts about now for having voted - way too gleefully - for the Obama agenda, lock, stock, and barrel.

One has to wonder.

Here's to Robert Hurt.  Stay on him, man.  Don't let go.

If you want to understand intellectuals, academic elites, and the current ruling class, watch this very interesting interview with Dr. Thomas Sowell. He shares keen insight into the mindset, arrogance and, ironically, the stupidity of many modern intellectuals. Sowell also discusses a concept which many intellectuals seem to be ignorant of - "consequential knowledge." The brief discussion about Harry Truman's (who had no college degree) and Ronald Reagan's (who did have a college degree, yet was not encumbered with what Sowell refers to as "the nonsense he would have been taught in a very prestigious institution") educational backgrounds and how their respective administrations bracketed the demise of the Soviet Union is worth more consideration and thought.

If you are at all interested in this debate and how academia and intellectuals view themselves, as well as what often motivates them, this is a must see. Sowell is brilliant and rather witty at times as well. Of course, Sowell's criticisms are at a "general pattern" in academia and we realize there are exceptions. The discussion is, nonetheless, quite fascinating and damning.

Here's a teaser quote that contradicts what some academic history bloggers are saying:

"We're becoming a nation of people who are propagandized from elementary school right on through to graduate school in a certain vision of the world."



Yes, this video will also dovetail very nicely into an upcoming post on how many intellectuals ("experts"), often have no idea what they're talking about and should never be given the benefit of the doubt.
http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

". . .the universe can and will create itself from nothing." ~ Stephen Hawking
That assertion is self-contradicting and defies logic. If "nothing" is the state of things, there is no "universe" to "create itself." Has this man lost his mind? http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

Authority Academia. If there is one thing I've learned in my 52 years, it's this: Don't trust opinions simply because they're doled out by so-called "experts." This is true in all aspects of life. Here's a recent example in the ongoing meltdown of the global warming theory:
"The global-warming establishment took a body blow this week, as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change received a stunning rebuke from a top-notch independent investigation . . . the prestigious InterAcademy Council, an independent association of "the best scientists and engineers worldwide" (as the group's own Web site puts it) formed in 2000 to give "high-quality advice to international bodies," has finished a thorough review of IPCC practices -- and found them badly wanting." (More here.)

It would seem we have one body of experts contradicting another. Nothing new. Look at the evidence. Apply logic and common sense. Think outside the box. Question assumptions. Come to your own conclusion. This same warning and advice applies to historical analysis by academics. Post coming tomorrow on that subject.

http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

Homeschooling and accelerated distance learning. Actually, it's not all that new. This "devolution" in education began in earnest in the 1980's. I "saw the light" in the mid-80's and finally got my wife on board in 1992.  Much of academia is still light years behind. The foundations of the institutionalized, conformist model of eduction are being chipped away at an accelerated pace. Much of the resistance continues to come from an elitist, "only us experts can do this" attitude. You see this attitude expressed in essays and in the official positions in the protectionist, money-driven teachers' unions. The experience of the young man in this video is becoming increasingly commonplace. Even so, his story is quite amazing. Homeschooled, and at age 17, he  completes his B.A. and is then heavily recruited by prestigious law schools. This will be a nice lead in to a post coming tomorrow:
http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

From the Foundry, “

If you like your health care plan you can keep it.” This was a mantra from President Obama throughout the health care debate. The President also promised that his health care overhaul would not affect seniors’ benefits...But, despite all the promises, a new report from Avalere Health shows that, in addition to the upheaval caused by Obamacare, the Medicare bureaucracy is taking administrative steps to change the Medicare drug program that will have adverse impact on seniors’ choices. Millions of seniors will have to switch their prescription drug plans due to changes within Medicare. Avalere is a private research firm founded by a former budget official from the Clinton Administration....Its analysis shows that more than 3 million seniors—roughly 20 percent of those enrolled in stand-alone drug plans—won’t be able to keep their current plan. According to the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, some of seniors’ drug plans will be eliminated as “Medicare tries to winnow  down duplicative and confusing coverage, in order to offer consumers more meaningful choices.”

Read More Here: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/01/the-medicare-bureaucracy-ready-to-disrupt-seniors’-drug-coverage/

Love him or hate him  few in the nation have been able to predict the political climate better than Larry Sabato head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics....From Larry Sabato's Crystal ball prediction:

2010 was always going to be a Republican year, in the midterm tradition. It has simply been a question of degree. Several scenarios were possible, depending in large measure on whether, or how quickly, the deeply troubled American economy recovered from the Great Recession. Had Democratic hopes on economic revitalization materialized, it is easy to see how the party could have used its superior financial resources, combined with the tendency of Republicans in some districts and states to nominate ideological fringe candidates, to keep losses to the low 30s in the House and a handful in the Senate….Obama’s job approval ratings have drifted down well below 50% in most surveys. The generic ballot that asks likely voters whether they will cast ballots for Democrats or Republicans this year has moved increasingly in the GOP direction. While far less important, other controversies such as the mosque debate and immigration policy have made the climate worse for Democrats. Republican voters are raring to vote, their energy fueled by anti-Obama passion and concern over debt, spending, taxes, health care, and the size of government. Democrats are much less enthusiastic by almost every measure, and the Democratic base’s turnout will lag. Plus, Democrats have won over 50 House seats in 2006 and 2008, many of them in Republican territory, so their exposure to any sort of GOP wave is high…. Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net…. This is a “net” number since the GOP will probably lose several of its own congressional districts in Delaware, Hawaii, and Louisiana. This estimate, which may be raised or lowered by Election Day, is based on a careful district-by-district analysis, plus electoral modeling based on trends in President Obama’s Gallup job approval rating and the Democratic-versus-Republican congressional generic ballot (discussed later in this essay). If anything, we have been conservative in estimating the probable GOP House gains, if the election were being held today......

Read more here http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/ljs2010090201/

While the governor has promised to unveil his proposal to privatize the state's ABC stores on September 8th, that's not nearly enough time for Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, a member of McDonnell's government reform panel, to thoroughly digest the idea:...Whipple said she has received very little information from the governor's staff despite repeated requests for more information. Her last meeting

Interesting tidbit:

McCarthy presided last year over an intimate group of congressmen, strategists and pollsters who sought to chart a rebirth of the GOP over a multi-year course. One product of their meetings were “WhiPods,” iPods that every member of Cantor’s Whip team received in order to listen to weekly podcasts on their way home to their districts about the minority’s agenda. A technology embrace and increased communication were two of the ways the GOP tried to put itself on equal footing with the more plugged-in Democrats. Operatives said the tactics were necessary, but even party stalwarts like RNC committeeman Saul Anuzis warned that the GOP’s path back would be “long and ugly.” Some scolded time and again, “An e-campaign is not a strategy.”

Sabato’s shop offers the latest point spread: GOP +8 in the Senate, +47 in the House, +8 governors.

Sometimes, one gets the sense that events are nothing but Rorschach tests. People will see in them what they want to see. In support of that theory, consider the insta-reactions to the recent hostage crisis at the Discovery Channel:

[B]loggers and partisan commentators have not hesitated in using this incident to score political points. Whether liberal or conservative, the bloggers argue that Lee represents the opposite end of the political spectrum and is thus the responsibility of that bloggers’ ideological opponents.

Numerous eyeroll-inducing examples follow.

The good professor frames his 60 days-out forecast of the November elections as "clinical," but there's no escaping the patterns he sees emerging as campaign season gets close to its official opening day:Given what we can see at this moment, Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net. [emphasis in original] This is a “net” number since the GOP will

That 2nd Amendment thingie?  It doesn't extend to guns potentially falling into the wrong hands.  So keeping guns out of anyone's hands is the logical course our government should take.

So says the Obama administration:

Obama Administration Reverses Course, Forbids Sale of 850,000 Antique Rifles
By Maxim Lott, Fox News

The South Korean government, in an effort to raise money for its military, wants to sell nearly a million antique M1 rifles that were used by U.S. soldiers in the Korean War to gun collectors in America.

The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates.

A State Department spokesman said the administration's decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands.

"The transfer of such a large number of weapons -- 87,310 M1 Garands and 770,160 M1 Carbines -- could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes," the spokesman told FoxNews.com. [link] [emphasis mine]

If you think about it, any gun, on any given day, can "fall into the wrong hands."  A sound justification for getting rid of all guns.

Thank God we have a benevolent government that is there to protect us from ourselves.

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Along those same lines:

"[Democrat] Deval Patrick on Beck rally: “It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t.”

Maybe it's best if we the people decide who gets to keep and bear arms.

The President is a non-believer.
"Obama may be the first U.S. president to lack faith in our special history, our special spirit and our special mission in the world." (Emphasis mine.)
~ Mallory Factor
You can read the rest of this interesting piece here at Forbes.com.

And this just in . . . 

"He's trying to Europeanize us, and the Europeans are going the other way," continues Ferlic, a former Democratic campaign donor who plans to vote Republican this year. "The entire American spirit is being broken."  (Emphasis mine.)

http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

MSNBC might have been able to put this guy to work as an evening anchor had the police not shot him:

Discovery Channel hostage-taker hated programming
By David Dishneau and Sarah Brumfield, Associated Press Writers

Silver Spring, Md. (AP) — A gunman police shot to death after he took hostages at Discovery Channel's headquarters said he hated the company's shows such as "Kate Plus 8" because they promote population growth and its environmental programming because it did little to save the planet.

Three hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — escaped unhurt after the four-hour standoff Wednesday in Silver Spring, just outside the nation's capital. After several hours negotiating with the gunman, tactical officers moved in when authorities monitoring him on building security cameras saw him pull out a handgun and point it at a hostage, said Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger.

It wasn't the first time Lee, a homeless former Californian, had targeted Discovery's headquarters. In February 2008, he was charged with disorderly conduct for staging a "Save the Planet Protest." In court and online, he had demanded an end to Discovery Communications LLC's shows such as TLC's "Kate Plus 8" and "19 Kids and Counting."

Instead, he said, the network should air "programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility." [link]

A product of the left.  He hated humanity.

The police did his cause a favor.

- - -

Headline of the day:

"Gun-wielding eco-terrorist calls for reduction in human population, gets wish."

That's even more impertinent than my take.  Good stuff.