The final push for Brownlee

Tripped across http://www.vaquitamlaw.com/ and learned even more reasons why Brownlee is the choice of winning delegates everywhere.

Considering the pain medication OxyContin , the author referenced this:
"The settlement was one of the largest financial penalties ever imposed on a drug company. Moreover, Brownlee insisted that Purdue's top executives plead guilty to criminal acts.
And consider this—prior to Brownlee's handling the Oxycontin case, Purdue had won hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits over Oxycontin. The only time Purdue had paid even one dollar was as part of a settlement to the West Virginia AG's office, and that settlement was only $10 million or so.
The New York Times claimed that “Purdue suffered a crushing defeat in May at the hands of Brownlee when the company and three top executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges.”"

And of Mr. Brownlee's most vocal opponent?

He says: By way of contrast, Ken Cuccinelli has practiced at the other extreme of the legal profession. Cuccinelli's career has been spent processing a series of small, routine legal matters such as DUIs, divorces, child custody disputes, collection matters, and so forth. There is no evidence of Cuccinelli ever doing anything out of the ordinary in his legal career.

If we want to win in November, in front of all the state's voters....not just delegates in this convention...and following my goldfish pond vs. the open ocean analogy...we'd be better to send the shark in.

From the "It seemed like a good idea at the time" file

There was an ill-conceived robo-call that has gone out, mysteriously, to the entire guarded list of delegates. In it, there is an attack on the sitting US Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Whoever the lame-brained culprit was....they weren't using said "brain", because now they'll have the full scope and cooperation of the State Government investigating the action, and probably as a "professional courtesy" to the US Attorney.
Congrats,dimwit!!!
Bet you're gonna wish you'd employed a little more thought before embarking down this road!
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STATEMENT FROM TEAM BROWNLEE ON ILLEGAL ROBO CALLS


This afternoon, many delegates around the Commonwealth received a deeply disturbing phone call attacking John Brownlee.

The perpetrators of this automated call violated state law by not including a "disclaimer" to announce who paid for and authorized the call.

The call was voiced by a crying child, and included a link to a website that not only attacks John, but attacks John's wife and his father - a decorated Vietnam veteran.

The child these individuals used to make the phone calls sounded to be under 5 years old. What kind of person uses a toddler to conduct a political smear?

To involve a small child in such a dirty political trick is appalling. To make such scurrilous charges is unethical. To conduct these calls without including a disclaimer is unlawful.

We have received reports of these calls from incensed convention delegates all over the Commonwealth. From these reports, it is almost certain that this call was delivered to the list of 2009 convention delegates (a list that has only been made available to the Republican Party of Virginia and our statewide campaigns). If this is the case, it means that either a campaign is conducting this desperate effort, or a campaign has given the delegate list to a third party to conduct the effort on its behalf. It means the individual or individuals responsible for this attack have almost certainly been in some form of contact with one of the other statewide campaigns.

Our state election laws help protect the integrity of our political process. Enforcement of these laws helps ensure our elections are conducted in an open, transparent manner.

Accordingly, we will ask the appropriate Virginia law enforcement agencies to begin a thorough investigation of this incident.

If we Republicans are to be successful in Virginia statewide elections again, we must stand up against those in our midst who would pollute our politics with cynical, illegal acts. We must declare that the days of political dirty tricks in Virginia are over.


Emphasis is mine.

John Brownlee...THE choice.

This is the chance to sweep the races in November, folks. No matter what "some" delegates may think...the overwhelming majority of voters , when presented with this video - and finding absolutely NOTHING negative or confrontational in his background or his record --- WILL vote for Brownlee over Shannon.

Update: And this is important. John hasn't driven this into the people's minds...but he does make one heck of a point with this one--- "I am the only candidate - of either Party - who has run an office of attorneys that is practically identical to the Attorney General's office". Think about that. On day ONE, John can step into the shoes and walk like he needs to. No familiarization - he already knows the responsibilities intimately. No learning curve- he's worked with Bob McDonnell, the last AG on so many cases, they complimented each other.
The man is a natural, and they don't come with better resumes, morals or humility.
I've met John numerous times and he is an all around great guy. Vote for John, because every Virginian benefits the day he steps into that office.

More "Do as I say, not do as I do".

"When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe -- that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground,"-- Barack Hussein Obama

So, is that why several priests, noted personalities and others were arrested and detained when they attempted a quite and civil protest?

"Archbishop Burke of the Vatican and the some 70 American bishops who have demanded that the invitation and honorary degree be withdrawn; the hundreds of thousands who have signed the petition with the same plea; the millions of Catholics and prolife Christians they represent -- although part of the Church communion, the body of Christ, and a community of the faithful, all are apparently to be treated as criminals if they dare to set foot on the Notre Dame campus to protect life and protest the University administration's scandalous judgment!!" --Alan Keyes

That's some real hospitality, right there.
If anyone dares oppose you, just detain them and mark their bail up. That'll shut 'em up!!

I never want to hear another word about how heavy-handed Bush was. This beats anything in that administration by miles.

Rest now, your work on earth is done

Marine Corp Sgt.James R. Mcllvaine was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors today at 1:00 PM. If you've never witnessed the ceremony in the Cemetery, you've missed one of the most emotionally charged events that life provides the rest of us.
Not that the Sergeant wanted to be there. He has a wife and two children in Twentynine Palms, Ca. He was a proud and honorable husband, father, and son. He was only 26 years old.

I'm not familiar with the particular circumstances of his death in Iraq. But I do know that he gave the full measure for the people there, and that their lives are better because of Sgt. Mcllvaine and his service brothers and sisters who have gone into harms way without any personal gain.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Rest well SGT. Mcllvaine. You earned it.

The three Corps Values: Honor, Courage, Commitment. They make up the bedrock of the character of each individual Marine. They are the foundation of his Corps. These three values, handed down from generation to generation, have made U.S. Marines the Warrior Elite. The U.S. Marine Corps: the most respected and revered fighting force on earth.

"Oorah!"

As they say: "No better friend, no worse enemy,"


" I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

A. Lincoln, 11/21 1864

Update: Sunday, May 17th, 2009 is the 5th anniversary of the death in Karbala, Iraq of 2LT Leonard M. Cowherd III of Culpeper. Please offer a prayer for his family.
Update: Wednesday, May 27th, 2009. Just learned that I know some of Sgt. Mcllvaine's family. I offer a special prayer for their comfort.

We need to pass on the link to a fine organization. Look around, Check it out. Remember those who came home with their lives, but left part of themselves on the battlefield for people they didn't even know.
WOUNDED WARRIOR

Muldoonery....

Most are appalled to see Muldoon's death march. But I'm pretty happy about it. Had he not gone so far off of the reservation and shown us just how devious he's ready to be in a winning year...we'd have never fully appreciated the depth of his spite in a questionable year.
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GOP Leaders Call On Patrick Muldoon to Stop His Dishonest, Negative Campaign

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the hundreds of grass-roots activists in the 9th Congressional District that give of their time, energy and money in support of our Republican candidates, we are writing to call on Patrick Muldoon to stop his slash and burn campaign of distortions against our friend and fellow conservative, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling.

Before he became a Washington, DC attorney, Patrick Muldoon lived in the 9th District in Giles County. We have known Patrick for many years and many of us put a great deal of energy into his previous campaign for Congress. It is an understatement to say that we are disappointed to see the path he has taken.

Over the last 13 years Patrick Muldoon has run for public and party office no fewer than 6 times – and lost. He has run for Congress twice (1996, 1998) – and lost. He has run for Commonwealth’s Attorney (1999) – and lost. He has run for Congressional District GOP Chairman twice (2006, 2008) – and lost. He has run for a seat on the State Central Committee (2006) – and lost.

Sadly, Patrick has never even won a single precinct in a general election in his home county of Giles.

The bottom line is that Patrick has become a perennial candidate. Having run out of offices to seek in the 9th District, he has allowed himself to be manipulated by a small faction within our party and is now running a personally negative campaign against one of the most reliable conservative voices our party has ever had in Richmond – Bill Bolling.

Bill Bolling is a conservative we can count on, and he has something that Patrick lacks: a record to back it up. Bill’s record includes:


A 100% pro-family voting record from The Family Foundation

A 100% pro-life voting record from the Virginia Society for Human Life

Endorsed by the Virginia Society for Human Life (2005)

Supported parental notification and consent legislation, a ban on partial birth abortions and higher patient safety standards for abortion clinics

Cast the tie-breaking vote to deny state funding to Planned Parenthood

Fought to restore abstinence education funding that Governor Kaine stripped from the budget

Led the fight to pass the Marriage Amendment

Has opposed every tax increase proposed by Governors Warner and Kaine


As his record proves, Bill Bolling is a proven conservative leader. To somehow suggest that Bill is “Planned Parenthood’s favorite Republican” or a promoter of a “hooked up cultural agenda” is offensive and dishonest and Patrick Muldoon should know better.

Some of us approached Patrick at the outset of his campaign and encouraged him to find a more constructive outlet for promoting his values. We are disappointed that he chose to ignore that advice and we are angered by the individuals who have used Patrick as little more than a weapon in a misguided attempt to tear down Lieutenant Governor Bolling and destroy our party.

We hope that you will join us and the individuals listed below in rejecting the half-truths and politics of negativity that Patrick Muldoon has embraced. We hope you will join us in supporting Bill Bolling at the Republican Convention in Richmond on May 30th.

Sincerely,

Michelle Jenkins, 9th District Chairwoman

Jerry Lester, State Central Committee

Jack Morgan, State Central Committee

Judi Lynch, State Central Committee

Shea Cook, Former 9th District Chairman

Angie Hall, Former 9th District Chairwoman

Stan Young, Former 9th District Chairman

Zack Thompson, Giles GOP Vice Chairman

The emphasis above is mine.
There's more than enough names on the remainder of the letter to easily carry the 9th, and I know a lot of the other districts are committed to Bolling as well.

Attacks on Caroline

Attacks on Glen Caroline are probably best viewed as deflection of the inevitable winning ground game he brings in November. As the newest Chairman of the Republican Committee here in Loudoun, he's formidable.
I invite everyone to go on over to the Operative Word and view the pathetic excuse of a posting that occurred late last week.
Then listen to this.


It's not one of the Operative's best pieces. It lacks fact or reason, and goes straight to the sophomoric view of the world enjoyed by the naive among us.
It also employs quite a bit of poetic license and even some downright misleading prose in an attempt to try to rob Caroline of his momentum. Judging from the results of the last election, in which Loudoun outgunned the rest of NOVA by a good 6 points, I'd say they're well within their right to be shakin'.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS YET????

Hilarious. But this is exactly what some people need to see to realize how big a Trillion dollar figure is. Look at the table, and recognise that every five pennies stacked on that table is a representation of $2 BIL bucks.



Ric, of course I stole the link from www.Hoodathunkblog.com (readers: a must visit blogsite with much interesting off-the-wall stuff - as well as some of the most pragmatic wrapups of politics in Loudoun County you'll ever read) but I felt the need to give it a wider audience so everybody sees this one!!! You're still the Da Man!

BLINK!!!!

Attended the Public Input meeting tonite.
A straw vote early in the evening suggested that the votes might be there for a resolution that Burton would introduce at some point.

Thursday is a big meeting with Bergel, Godfrey and the two BOS from out here in Catoctin/Blue Ridge. I think that the evening of public speaking was a bit premature in that this meeting had not occurred yet. The meeting had been planned well before this input.

Outcomes:
It looks like a game of Blink!!!! If the BOS enters a resolution that they have no intentions of constructing a school on the site...the School Board can purchase it anyway and hope these Supervisors are voted out before them. Not likely. I think the School Board lays their proverbial heads across the axing stump with that plan.

The School Board can now aquire the land anyway, and gamble that they are more popular than the BOS, and when this bunch of Supervisors gets voted out, they'll work with their replacements to build on the property.

There's also a probable civil action against the School Board to save the house on the property on or before June 1st. Even if the County stops the demolition permit, they'll get sued and Sal will be delayed by days...not weeks.

Interestingly, I saved the fact that the Millers (who own the controversial property in Lovettsville) were going to fly in, and they did. What they said pretty much pulled that property off of the availability list. Unless the Board gets into "Eminent Domain Mode....yet another reason to stretch their necks across the block and let the voters have at them.

At the root of all of this, they'll overpay for the property, and in 10 years , we'll have a piece of land that isn't worth anything except the frontage when 287 is widened.

Call your School Board member and let them know that they are the most likely to be voted out, if they follow thru and do not push for a renegotiation. Money's tight.
The big boys, DuPree and Hatrick need to realize that the gig is up.

UPDATE: I caught alot of crap from a few anonymous posters over at TooConservative.com , because I said the money wasn't there for the purchase of this Wheatlands. Turns out, I was right. The Schools were paid for in a referendum on the ballot sometime ago, but the School Board doesn't have enough. They need funds from the BOS to purchase something of the amount of Wheatlands.
What is upsetting is a group of individuals who would actively embrace Eminent Domain and condemnation of a parcel in Lovettsville for even more money after this site is off the radar. In fact, that's why they've joined the fight....so they can get their long-awaited school in Lovettsville, and make the rest of the population out in Waterford, Round Hill, Neersville and Hillsboro come to them...sitting a mere two miles from the State line and so far out of the actual attendance grid, it looks sorely odd to place it there.
They never cared what Wheatlands cost was...only that it prevented them from getting their school in Lovettsville.

Let's be clear. No matter who condemns and takes the first piece of property in this county, it's going to be an ugly road for them. The first thing they can count on is kissing any chance of reelection good-bye. It's just that unpopular with 95% of the property owners in the County. Like the unpopular actions of the last BOS, the people will solidly back removal of anyone who thinks they are big enough to stand between people and their legally aquired land and the amounts of money that we paid for it, just to think that we "owned" it.
The faults don't end there, however. The small group is also advocating for the flip or the aquisition of a 91 acre parcel that became a public park after a 2004 referendum before the people. Many folks in Lovettsville worked very hard to get the park, and they raised quite a bit of money to purchase it before the County was approached to help obtain it.
Without actually placing it on another referendum and asking those same voters if they'd approve a flip, the group is advocating the subversion of the will of the people...something they don't really have a use for.
Stay tuned...

HB2155 and power generation at commercial entities.

Net-metering bill emerged from the last General Assembly.
It basically allows businesses to reverse meter into the grid.
The maximum generation capacity for a nonresidential customer-generator is increased from 500 kilowatts to two megawatts. The measure also requires the State Corporation Commission to establish a program that will allow a customer with multiple, separately billed facilities located within a utility's service territory, one or more of which are eligible customer-generators, to aggregate the electricity consumption and generation of its participating facilities.



http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2009/hb2155/

Jack Kemp passing.

WASHINGTON – Jack Kemp, the ex-quarterback, congressman, one-time vice-presidential nominee and self-described "bleeding-heart conservative" died Saturday.

His spokeswoman Bona Park and longtime friend and former campaign adviser Edwin J. Feulner confirmed that Kemp died after a lengthy illness.

Kemp had announced in January 2009 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said he was undergoing tests but gave no other detail.

Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.

Eight years later, after serving a term as President George H.W. Bush's housing secretary, he made it onto the national ticket as Bob Dole's running-mate.

But the part you won't see covered in that obituary is this part.

"At its core, the idea proposed to slash personal income tax rates -- and cut them big time by 30 percent over three years. It was 1978, the middle of the Carter malaise years, and after what Bartley calls a "stormy debate" the bill failed in a conference committee. Kemp kept going. By 1980 he had convinced candidate Ronald Reagan, and the concept was written into the 1980 Republican platform. By August of 1981 President Ronald Reagan was signing Kemp's cause into law. By 1983, the American economy had begun to shake off recession and, in a startling reversal, roared to life. The results were so powerful that Reagan later said France's Socialist President François Mitterrand, Reagan's guest at the 1983 Williamsburg G-7 Summit, wanted to know just exactly what went into America's blossoming and quite vivid economic growth." - From The Importance of Jack Kemp

Godspeed, Jack. I always thought you deserved more before you departed.

Mine That Bird Wins Derby

Mine That Bird, an upstart who was driven in from Sunland Park, NM has won the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby.
I've done work for the NM Racing Commission, and got my start there at Sunland Park.
More on Mine That Bird...