Author: Timothy Watson

I must admit I’m conflicted here.

For two days the Richmond Times-Dispatch has run stories about a battle in Henrico County between a homeowners association (HOA) and a Medal of Honor recipient regarding the veteran’s flagpole (today’s story here).

Now, if this was a state or local government prohibiting the flying of a flag (or the flagpole, depending on who you listen to), this would be a no-brainer and I would be agreeing with the vet. Anyone that knows me, or even reads my blog at all, should know that I think and believe if it’s your property, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. If one of your neighbors doesn’t like it, maybe they should make you an offer you can’t refuse (the monetary kind, not the dead horse kind) for the parcel of land.

However, this is a homeowners association. When you move into a subdivision with an HOA, you agree to the rules that they have been established and any rules they might establish in the future.

That’s your choice. No one forces you to move into that subdivision. By moving into that neighborhood, you’re giving up rights and privileges that you might otherwise have. You agree to abide by their rules, as absurd as they may be.

Thoughts?

Mike Huckabee: I commuted the repeated felon’s sentence because the justice system is racist. Oh, and I don’t know jack about the constitution.

Not in so many words of course:

Huckabee defended his choice to grant the Arkansas felon clemency by insisting that Clemmons original sentence went too far.

“If he were a white kid from an upper middle class family he would have gotten a lawyer and some counseling,” Huckabee said. “But because he was a young black kid he got 108 years.”

Can someone find me a “white kid” — or any kid for that matter — that would have been given counseling for the combined offenses of: a) robbery and assault and battery; b) burglary of a state trooper’s home and grand larceny (including the theft of a firearm from the trooper’s home); c) possession of a gun in  school zone; and d) attempted aggravated assault against a bailiff using a padlock and assault and battery against his mother (the incompetent moron missed and hit his mother instead)?

Anyone? Bueller?

And, then we turn to the utter ignorance of Mike Huckabee regarding the United States Constitution.

Of course, Huckabee isn’t a huge fan of the current constitution and has stated that he believes that the constitution needs to be amended to “reflect ‘God’s standards'”. Apparently God’s big on letting repeated felons out of prison, at least that’s what Huckabee thinks.

But, as the constitution currently exists, there’s thing called the Sixth Amendment which reads:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

In Johnson v. Zerbst (304 U.S. 458 (1938)), the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that there was a requirement that indigent defendants be appointed counsel in federal courts if they could afford their own. In Gideon v. Wainwright (372 U.S. 335 (1963)), that ruling was extended to state courts for all felony cases.

In short, the guy had an attorney!

But poor Mike Huckabee (or Dukakabee as some of my fellow bloggers refer to him) is so completely ignorant (or just lying, pick your poison), he attempts to obfuscate instead of taking responsibility for actions that he was responsible for.

Caroline County Board of Supervisors: Fredericksburg’s public safety is a legislative priority, but not our own.

What passes for a (proposed) legislative platform for this county is laughable (PDF).

If you read through the thing, where at the specific issues facing Caroline County (and, yes, I know it is a regional platform. *snort*)? On the last page, it mentions funding for the HB 599 Program. The HB 599 Program is funding appropriated through the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) for local police departments. While some of the incorporated towns in the local counties receive some money, the main recipient of HB 599 locally is the Fredericksburg Police Department. Bowling Green, for instance, received a misery $26,310 of funding in FY06 through HB 599 (PDF).

Where in the legislative platform is the request that Compensation Board funding — which funds the offices of the sheriff, commonwealth’s attorney, clerk of the court, treasurer, and commissioner of revenue — not be cut? Where is the request for full-funding of offices that the Compensation Board states are understaffed according to their own standards?

According to the state’s own guidelines, the Caroline County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office should be getting additional funding for a full-time position for FY10 (while simultaneously being ranked as most in need) (PDF). The Clerk of the Court’s Office should getting an additional position (PDF). The Treasurer’s Office? Two positions (PDF). Commissioner of Revenue? Two positions (PDF).

The most egregious of these are the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and the Clerk of the Court’s Office. Last year, the Board of Supervisors in its infinite wisdom decide that money should be given to Big Brothers, Big Sisters because a child might be saved (“Won’t someone please think of the children?!”). Seriously, someone (Floyd Thomas) said that. They did all this while refusing to funding an additional position in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. You know, that office that actually prosecutes the people who harm the county’s children and who may in the future harm the county’s children?

And meanwhile in the Clerk of the Court’s Office, the clerk (Ray Campbell) decided, starting July 1, 2009, that they would no longer prepare sentencing reports for the judge. In doing so, the clerk’s office became only the second office in the state to not prepare sentencing reports alongside the city of Richmond.

Because the presiding judge went to the Board of Supervisors stating that they could be sued if they didn’t give him money to hire a clerk (separate of the clerk’s office) to prepare the sentencing reports and because he absolutely had to have the money right then (!!!), the BOS decided to add a full-time clerk’s position (costing $22,000+) on top of a budget that had absolutely zero money to spare.

All this while the county believes that Fredericksburg’s police force is a pressing issue on the county’s legislative platform.

And then we turn to the composite index issues. The composite index is a complicated formula that the Virginia Department of Education uses to determine how much money each jurisdiction should get using several figures, including assessed real-estate values.  The higher the determined value for each county, the more able those counties are supposed to be to fund their school system. In addition, the higher the composite index value, the more money that the jurisdiction has to provide to the system if they want the state’s money.

For years, Caroline County’s composite index has been higher (therefore, we are supposed to be able to fund our schools) than our neighboring counties Spotsylvania and Stafford. That’s right, Caroline is be able to pay for schools than Spotsy and Stafford. While in this biennium (2010–2012) Spotsylvania’s composite index is no long lower than Caroline’s, Stafford’s still is. Caroline’s composite index is .3580, Stafford’s is .3362 (Spotsylvania is at .3594) (PDF).

So, where is this address in the proposed legislative platform? Well, of course, it isn’t. After all, neither Spotsy nor Stafford would be too supportive of a platform that resulted in less money going to themselves.

But the Caroline County Board of Supervisors isn’t Spotsy nor Stafford. Why don’t they tell the Virginia Association of Counties Region 7 to take a hike? Why don’t they worked with places like Lancaster County (composite index of .8000 [Ibid] while half of their school kids are on free or reduced price lunch) to put pressure on the folks in the General Assembly to actually get something done?

Caroline County has three Delegates (one of whom lives in the county) and a State Senator representing their interests (allegedly) in the General Assembly. And Caroline County can not come up with a list of pressing issues without the help of the folks in Spotsy and Stafford? The board nor county staff can’t spend thirty minutes sitting down to identify these issues that are affecting the county and propose a solution to fix them?

Heck, if I can do in less that 30 minutes, they should be able to.

Quadruple cop killer in Seattle had previously targeted an Arkansas State Trooper. And Mike Huckabee still commuted his sentence.

The blogopshere is abuzz with news that the suspect in an quadruple cop killing had been granted clemency by then-Governor Mike Huckabee. If you hadn’t heard about this already, check out Michelle Malkin’s continuing coverage.

But this isn’t the first time that this scum-sucking POS has targeted a police officer. From an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette dated February 25, 1990 (via LexisNexis):

While waiting for his trial to begin, Clemmons, of 2808 Welch St., grabbed a padlock off his holding cell and hurled it at a court bailiff, Clark Thorne. His aim misfired and the lock struck his mother, who had come to bring him street clothes.

Clemmons already was serving 48 years on five felony convictions and is facing up to 95 more on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property.

The jury took just 16 minutes to find him guilty of burglarizing the Little Rock home of an state Trooper Keith Eremea of merchandise valued at $6,771, including his gun.

Clemmons broke into the home on April 4 by forcing open the garage.

And Mike Huckabee decided to commute this guy’s sentence knowing that the guy was a serial criminal that had previously targeted a police officer. Or maybe he didn’t know, it is Huckabee after all.

Holy cow, R. Allen Webb is making up new Congressional districts too.

Fresh off the news that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e. the stimulus act) has created over a dozen new Congressional districts (I’m running in the new 00 district myself), it looks like Chairman R. Allen Webb of the 99th House of Delegates Republican Committee has created a new Congressional district himself. From an official call for a meeting of the committee on December 14th:

OFFICIAL CALL FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA’S 99TH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE

Oi, some typo.

Any chance we get a motion of no confidence against this dolt?

Is Catherine Crabill a Provisional IRA member?

The folks at “I’m Surrounded By Idiots” (that would be me) have been wondering for a long time where exactly Catherine Crabill got her infamous ‘ballot box or bullet box’ quote (since Patrick Henry never said anything remotely similar — ever).

While spending too much time on Wikipedia, I came across this quote from Provisional Irish Republican Army leader Danny Morrison:

Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in this hand and an Armalite in the other, we take power in Ireland?

Thoughts?