And the bad thing is these Republicans in the 99th district can’t backpedal now and say they didn’t know what they were getting. They knew full well the kind of comments she had made previously as well as her membership in a militia group. Oh, well…
Of course, her report from the previous filing period was noticeably missing certain expenditures that should have been included in the report but I haven’t had a chance to write a post about that yet.
UPDATE, 07/16/2009, 1:10 p.m.: The report is finally up now.
That’s a step above a mere hate-blogger right? From Catherine Crabill’s campaign website/blog (get your own link):
As we have all seen in these recent years anyone who stands for the core principles of a free nation are pilloried in the press. Just this past April we saw how Patriots who joined with the Tea Parties across the country were mocked and ridiculed. This is a part of Alinsky’s method: Rule #5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.” I have been a target of such character assassination as will any freedom loving American who dares to speak the truth. The only way to disarm this technique is to recognize it as such and stand against it or ignore it and support that candidate in spite of it!
I guess a character asssassin is just like an “attack ad”, they both tell the truth.
Right now, Steve Shannon is attacking Ken Cuccinelli for failing to support a bill of Shannon’s from back in 2007 that Shannon claims would have prevented the pending Charlie-Foxtrot regarding forensic techs being required to testify for drunk driving cases. The problem? His bill would have done no since thing according to “The Jaded JD”:
Most importantly, the bill is completely unrelated to the Melendez-Diaz decision. Melendez-Diaz says the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment allows a criminal defendant to confront the forensic analyst who analyzed the forensic evidence introduced at trial. Not only does Shannon’s bill not presciently recognize a right of confrontation, it restricts the ability of the defendant to object to the admissibility of the forensic certificate:
[…]
So, had Shannon’s bill become law, it wouldn’t have alleviated the current problem because it would itself be invalid under Melendez-Diaz. What’s worse, by linking the bill to Melendez-Diaz and criticizing Cuccinelli for not supporting it, Shannon appears not to realize that. That doesn’t inspire confidence in an Attorney General candidate.
You really need to read the whole thing as they say.
As you may be aware, Caroline County High School football coach Ben Boyd was indicted on July 1st for forgery of a public record and uttering of a public record. Below you’ll find a story from Jon Burkett of WTVR Channel 6 in Richmond (I apologize if you experience popping in the audio but that’s WTVR’s doing, not mine):
By Major Scott Moser’s own admission “the case is currently under investigation” and “could take a couple weeks” according to Jon Burkett. So, you know, don’t worry about making sure the guy is actually guilty or anything, let’s just indict him. Anyone remember the age old quote about being able to indict a ham sandwich? Perfect example here.
In certain situations, that would be alright. If you catch a suspect standing over a dead body with the proverbial smoking gun, then yeah, you would indict the guy while forensics testing and whatnot were still being done. But this situation takes on a completely different light because the sheriff — the chief law enforcement officer in the county — has publicly and falsely accused Boyd of a different crime previously while displaying zero knowledge of the situation.
And according to The Free Lance–Star (get your own link), Boyd was arrested at the school. That’s right, he wasn’t even given the opportunity to turn himself in. After all, when you have a vendetta against a guy, you want to cause the biggest scene and most embarrassment possible.
Who knows, Boyd could very well be guilty of these charges. But the Sheriff’s Office sure as heck doesn’t know for sure since they have “a couple weeks” of investigating to do still.
And, of course, there’s also the matter of Tony Spencer in this whole thing. He is the Commonwealth’s Attorney after all. But at least he’s been mum to the newspapers and other media stating “This case needs to be tried in a court, not in the press.” That’s a far cry from Lippa’s public announcement of vendetta against Boyd previously as well as Lippa’s personal friend (i.e., Jon Burkett) rushing to do a story about the case for WTVR while parroting everything that comes out of the sheriff’s office.
Yes, they’re friends before you ask. If you don’t believe me, think about this: When does WTVR do any stories about Caroline County? When it involves Lippa and his sheriff’s office. I don’t recall them covering the Gaudenzi case (a 14 year cold case) and, after all, Lippa wasn’t involved in the case, only the Virginia State Police was.
I would love to know why Lippa decided to pursue a vendetta against Boyd, an interesting theory has been suggested elsewhere (primarily on one newspaper’s website) — which I don’t plan on repeating on this space currently — but you better hope that the next person Lippa decides to go after it isn’t you or someone you care about.
Paul W. Powell will not be executed tomorrow night.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay of execution today pending review of his petition for a writ of certiorari to the high court.
The three-sentence order indicates that Powell shouldn’t put but so much faith in the stay, however.
If the court denies the petition, “this stay shall terminate automatically,” according to the order. If it is granted, the stay will not end until the Supreme Court decides the case, the order says.
The image of the hard-bitten soldier grabbing a post-battle smoke may be a cliche, but it’s one that the U.S. Army hopes to change.
To that end, the Texas Medical Center reports that one of its researchers has been awarded $3.7 million grant by the Army to create an anti-smoking video game for military personnel.
Remember this the next time the Army says they don’t have money for soldiers’ body armor or to up-armor HMMWVs. It’s bad enough they’ve been wasting money for almost seven years on “America’s Army” — another video game they created in an attempt to improve recruitment — but this is just ridiculous. And as one commenter on GamePolitics pointed out, if there’s one group that should be able to smoke without being harassed it’s our military personnel.
Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, (whose district includes part of Caroline County) and Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Woodbridge, (whose district includes Fauquier County) also are unchallenged.
Yes, while Chris Peace’s district — the 97th— does include a portion of Caroline County, it also includes a portion of Spotsylvania County as indicated by the map below:
Spotsylvania County is obviously part of The Free Lance–Star‘s coverage area so they might want to correctly point out which districts are composed of what counties.
Of course, these are the same geniuses that think all of the 99th House district is part of the 28th Senate district; it isn’t.
