John Lampmann: Serious candidate? No.

I have halfway been following the race for the Republican nomination in the 99th, especially after Albert Pollard announced that he would not be running for reelection, leaving the presumptive winner to be whoever manages to win the Republican nomination.

One of the candidates that is running is John Lampmann, a resident of Portobago subdivision in northern Caroline County. I always thought the guy was a squish, now I am thinking he’s just an idiot.

I find it bizarre that a man that talks about how he will “[s]hore up protection for our property rights and property values and” “[r]e-create the foundation for more and better jobs that pay a living wage in the Northern Neck”, has been one of the foremost opponents of the special exception permit request by Vulcan and Black Marsh Farms.

Lampmann is an enemy of private property rights and wants to deny the citizens of Caroline 14 full-time jobs and $100,000 annually in tax revenue.

Lampmann: Already Bought and Paid For

Even more bizarre to me is that Lampmann goes on and on ad nauseam about how he is going to fight the “urban special interests”.

Right, the guy that has spent the last six years as a corporate lobbyist is going to fight special interests? To make matters worse, Lampmann is not even honest about what he does for a living referring to his job as a “Washington Representative”. Yes, seriously:

Upon leaving public service, John joined Johnson, Madigan, Peck Bolland & Steward as a Washington Representative for two years.  John now runs his own consulting company where he continues to serve the public interest by helping private organizations make government work for the public good.

To Lampmann, “serv[ing] the public interest” is getting corporate welfare and subsidies for private companies and organizations.

Who have been some of Lampmann’s lobbying clients?

  • AARP, one of the biggest supporters of Obamacare.
  • “Compete America”, a collection of different corporate interests that support issuing more H1-B visas for immigrants. So while Lampmann is talking about how the Northern Neck has no jobs, he has been representing a client that thinks that jobs should go, not to Americans, but immigrants.
  • WilmerHale, a law firm that defended, pro bono, the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold “campaign finance law” before the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled the law to be an unconstitutional violation of the people’s right to freedom of speech.

But here’s my favorite: According to Lampmann’s biography he was the chief of state for Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary for 18 years.

In 2006, after leaving his job as chief of staff, Lampmann was a lobbyist for the “National Music Publishers Association”, a trade association that attempts to get legislation passed seeking tougher penalties for copyright violations. The same year that Lampmann was a lobbyist for the association, his former boss introduced a bill that would have:

The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

It also represents a political setback for critics of expanding copyright law, who have been backing federal legislation that veers in the opposite direction and permits bypassing copy protection for “fair use” purposes. That bill–introduced in 2002 by Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat–has been bottled up in a subcommittee ever since.

[…]

But one of the more controversial sections may be the changes to the DMCA. Under current law, Section 1201 of the law generally prohibits distributing or trafficking in any software or hardware that can be used to bypass copy-protection devices. (That section already has been used against a Princeton computer science professor, Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov and a toner cartridge remanufacturer.)Smith’s measure would expand those civil and criminal restrictions. Instead of merely targeting distribution, the new language says nobody may “make, import, export, obtain control of, or possess” such anticircumvention tools if they may be redistributed to someone else.

[…]

The proposed law scheduled to be introduced by Rep. Smith also does the following:

  • Permits wiretaps in investigations of copyright crimes, trade secret theft and economic espionage. It would establish a new copyright unit inside the FBI and budgets $20 million on topics including creating “advanced tools of forensic science to investigate” copyright crimes.
  • Amends existing law to permit criminal enforcement of copyright violations even if the work was not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
  • Boosts criminal penalties for copyright infringement originally created by the No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 from five years to 10 years (and 10 years to 20 years for subsequent offenses). The NET Act targets noncommercial piracy including posting copyrighted photos, videos or news articles on a Web site if the value exceeds $1,000.
  • Creates civil asset forfeiture penalties for anything used in copyright piracy. Computers or other equipment seized must be “destroyed” or otherwise disposed of, for instance at a government auction. Criminal asset forfeiture will be done following the rules established by federal drug laws.
  • Says copyright holders can impound “records documenting the manufacture, sale or receipt of items involved in” infringements.

Draw your own conclusions there.

And speaking of Lampmann’s former boss, Lamar Smith, he thinks that “the liberal media bias” is a gravest threat facing this country, even worst than a recession and a terrorist attack:

Do we want our next Delegate to be a Beltway insider and a corporate lobbyist?

Caroline County Redistricting News: Goodbye Chris Peace, hello John Cox.

The proposed redistricting plan for the Virginia House of Delegates is out and it has a pretty major change in it for the southern portion of the county. While the Port Royal precinct and the Bowling Green district stay in the 99th and the Woodford precinct stays in the 54th, everyone else will now be in the 55th district (John Cox) instead of the 97th (Chris Peace) (click the image to enlarge):

The State Senate redistricting plan is out, but there is no change for Caroline County in that: the whole county stays in the 4th district (McDougle).

Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.

Delegate Chris Peace is an embarrasment to Caroline County and Virginia.

Delegate Chris Peace (R-97th), who represents the southern portions of Caroline County, including Ladysmith, has a brilliant idea: he’s going to run those damn Hispanics illegals out of state colleges and universities.

When did he turn to promote his bill to keep Hispanics illegals out of college? “World Net Daily” (WND).

What is “World Net Daily”, you may be asking? Well, it is the clearing house of hundreds of different crazy conspiracy theories, including being one of the main sites responsible for the “Birthers” who allege, despite the voluminous evidence to the contrary, that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. In all, it is a bunch of crazies that write a bunch of nonsensical drivel.

Did he solicit an interview from WND or did they contact him? In any case, why did he agree to have an interview with them? Is he a Birther? If I was a politician and WND contacted me to do a story about a bill that I had sponsored, it was force me to do a little rethinking about my position. But for Chris Peace? He is more than glad to do an interview with a bunch of nuts.

Illegal aliens are already not eligible for in-state tuition (see Va. Code § 23-7.4), but now Chris Peace wants colleges and universities to conduct full background checks on applicants to see if they are in the country legally.

How about we just call this the “Bureaucrat Full Employment Act”? I thought Republicans were supposed to be for limited government or something?

Here is to hoping that someone runs against him this year. Chris Peace should not be in any position of elected office in this state.

2010 General Assembly Session: The good, the bad, and the ugly (so far).

Or the “great”, the “good”, the “bad”, and the “what the…” bills that have been prefiled so far for this coming session.

Great

HJ5 (Oder): Creates a transportation lockbox.

SB 4 (Smith): Requires General Assembly members to disclose if them or anyone in their families makes more than $10,000 from any state or local agency or government.

SB 5 (Smith): Requires state budget documents and amendments be posted for 72 hours before they can be voted on.

Good

HB1 (Loupassi): Makes Virginia’s anti-spam statute constitutional by excepting religious and politician spam.

HB8 (Carrico)/SB 3 (Smith): Allows for renewal of Virginia concealed handgun permits via the mail instead of requiring you to go to the courthouse.

HB18 (Cole): Tells the federal governments that regulation of interstate commerce is exactly that: interstate commerce.

Bad

HB2 (Loupassi): I’m sick of tax credits. And people wonder why it’s impossible to understand the tax code without a team of accountants and lawyers.

SB 9 (Blevins): Because the government doesn’t have anything better to do.

SB 10 (Blevins): See above.

What the…

HB21 (Kilgore): Seriously, who knew that the state had civil immunity for people doing space flights?

Delegate Scott Lingamfelter: Just another big-government Republican.

From today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter is getting in on the fight over the flying of the American flag.

The Prince William County Republican plans to submit a bill for next year’s General Assembly session that would require homeowners associations to allow combat veterans decorated for valor to fly the flag in any manner permitted by federal law.

[…]

Lingamfelter joins a group of supporters that boasts the White House, Democrats including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and both of Virginia’s U.S. senators, as well as Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, the second-ranking Republican in the House.

[…]

Lingamfelter hasn’t finalized the language of his bill, and he noted that he’s open to broadening its scope to include more than just decorated veterans. He also said he’s open to associations decreeing requirements for residents’ flag display.

“Just don’t tell them they can’t do it,” he said.

In terms of Barfoot’s specific situation, Lingamfelter said it’s possible that the association will allow the matter to quietly go away.

“But I’m not going to quietly go away,” he added.

Similarly, he said that he has never faced a situation in which someone objected to his display of the red, white and blue.

But if it had happened?

“It would have only happened one time,” Lingamfelter said.

Okay, this need to be broken down line-by-line (with some reorganizing of the text for increased brevity):

Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter is getting in on the fight over the flying of the American flag.

The Prince William County Republican plans to submit a bill for next year’s General Assembly session that would require homeowners associations to allow combat veterans decorated for valor to fly the flag in any manner permitted by federal law.

Lingamfelter hasn’t finalized the language of his bill, and he noted that he’s open to broadening its scope to include more than just decorated veterans.

Lingamfelter is still “open” as to who will be covered by his proposed edict, but the congressional proposal only covered Medal of Honor recipients. What about those lowly combat veterans that only managed to get a Silver or Bronze Star (sarcasm!)? What about those that only receive a Purple Heart or Distinguished Serve Medal? What about those that didn’t serve in a combat? What about reservists and National Guard members? What about the families of all of the above? What about an average person that didn’t serve in the military at all? Will all of these people be protected by these edicts (which, interestingly, doesn’t seem to be part of the powers of Congress, at least not in my copy of the United States Constitution)?

I do find it funny as well that all these Republicans are jumping on a bandwagon to create a protected class of individuals that are exempt from the rules of a homeowners association (HOA), an organization that they entered into a contract — voluntarily — with. No one forces you to join a HOA, you make that choice when you decide to move into a particular neighborhood. You choose to give up your rights, while presumably of sound mind, when you enter into a contract with the HOA.

And notably, for Republicans, when it comes to protecting a certain class of people under hate crime legislation, then it’s totally unacceptable to create a class of individuals that are treated differently in the eyes of the law. Or so they would want you to believe.

[…]

Lingamfelter joins a group of supporters that boasts the White House, Democrats including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and both of Virginia’s U.S. senators, as well as Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, the second-ranking Republican in the House.

We call them “statists” here.

[…] He also said he’s open to associations decreeing requirements for residents’ flag display.

“Just don’t tell them they can’t do it,” he said.

And here comes the lying (or the opening of one’s mouth and proving of one’s own ignorance).  The veteran in this case was never told that he couldn’t fly the flag. He was told that he could not erect a flag pole. So, Mr. (or Delegate, or King of Virginia) Lingamfelter, you have now shown yourself to be a liar or completely ignorant.

In terms of Barfoot’s specific situation, Lingamfelter said it’s possible that the association will allow the matter to quietly go away.

“But I’m not going to quietly go away,” he added.

Of course not, you’re a politician, they never go away — quietly or not.

Similarly, he said that he has never faced a situation in which someone objected to his display of the red, white and blue.

But if it had happened?

“It would have only happened one time,” Lingamfelter said.

And what exactly does that mean? Is King of Virginia Lingamfelter saying he would result to violence if someone told him he was violating an HOA rule? Or is he saying he would just use his power as a legislator to exempt him from any rule that he feels like violating?

Questions, questions.

Tim Kaine to call for special session of the General Assembly in light of the SCOTUS decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massacheusetts.

Check it out at Bloggers for Ken Cuccinelli: Tim Kaine Agrees With Ken Cuccinelli, Decides to Call Special Session.

Hack “journalism” from the Capital News Service at VCU.

From WTVR:

[flv:https://www.imsurroundedbyidiots.com/videos/WTVR_16042009165702174_5374411_2.flv 320 240]

And the full YouTube video:

Here’s Dave Albo’s response on the WaPo’s Virginia Politics blog:

Amy: Did it occur to anyone to inquire what was going on at the time? Had the VCU reporter told the full story, she would have mentioned that at that time no votes were being taken, and I actually recall we were in a recess “break” awaiting Senate action. We get on line all the time to respond mostly to constituent inquiries. I get 100’s a day and its tough to keep up. At the time of this report, I was looking at house values in Mason Neck b/c I had a constituent write, all upset about his County Real Estate Tax. But the “reporter” did not give any subject of the report an opportunity to respond. Just a slam piece taken out of context.

And, unfortunately, the video WTVR is from their 5:00 broadcast and not the 11:00 broadcast. When they ran the story at 11:00, there was a comment at the end of the segment from the newscaster that went something like, “When the VCU student tried to contact the Delegates before posting the video, none of the Delegates said that the photos were taken during a recess of the House.”

Um…excuse me, you have to be told that there’s a recess going on when you’re in the House gallery and can see and hear everything going on on the House floor?

I need video of this: Bobby Orrock got booed down by the House of Delegates.

Follow-up to my previous post. From The Washington Post:

This year, there were echoes — distant perhaps — of Webster vs. Clay as delegates debated clotheslines. The energy-saving bill, sponsored by Sen. Linda T. “Toddy” Puller (D-Fairfax), would have prevented rule-happy homeowner associations from banning clotheslines.

Taking aim at the bill as if wielding a rug-beater, Del. Robert D. “Bobby” Orrock Sr. (R-Caroline) said Northern Virginians might regret seeing clotheslines strung from “tree to tree to tree.”

“Go ahead and pass this, and then when your folks come screaming that this looks like a West Virginia subdivision,” Orrock began, but boos cut him off.

Christ, what an elitist.

Why is Bobby Orrock supporting legislation that has been declared unconstitutional in Ohio?

As “theRadical” pointed out in a comment on my post about Bobby Orrock’s proposed voted registration legislation, the portion of Bobby Orrock’s legislation which makes it illegal to pay someone to collect signatures or distribute voter registration forms on a per-signature rate has been ruled unconstitutional in Ohio (specifically by the Southern District of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals).

The state of Ohio appealed the Sixth Circuit’s opinion and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case on November 17, 2008.

Unfortunately, cases from the Sixth Circuit don’t directly affect Virginia since Virginia is part of the Fourth Circuit, but the Supreme Court obviously didn’t disagree with the Sixth Circuit’s opinion in the matter since they refused to hear Ohio’s request for an appeal.

Thank you! Delegates Chris Peace and Albert Pollard vote against smoking ban!

Chief Local Idiot Politician Bobby Orrock voted for it.

It’s kinda of sad to see Bob Marshall support the ban, especially given his conservative credentials.

And former Attorney General and current candidate for Governor, Bob McDonnell, released a press statement a couple days stating that he did not support the ban (WTOP). Hey, he might actually get my support this year. Wonders will never cease. :)