Author: Timothy Watson

Lawrence Gaudenzi pleads guilty, gets 25 years in prison.

He also refused to say where the body was (The Free Lance–Star, Ellen Biltz’s Twitter page), which I found a little weird.

Couple of possibilities there: The prosecution knew that the body was disposed of in such a way that nothing could be recovered and didn’t want Gaudenzi to be able to get a lighter sentence because he disclosed what happened to the body. I was also wondering if he would come forward during sentencing and voluntarily disclose where the body was in an attempt to get the judge to reduce the sentence by a couple years, but that isn’t the case since he was just sentenced and no mention of the actual disclosure of the body was made in Ellen Biltz’s tweets.

I’m also ignoring the most obvious one: The guy’s an evil piece of s— and enjoys hurting people, even if it’s the victim’s family.

“Let’s Try a Truly Merit-based System for Picking U.S. Attorneys”.

Virginia Lawyers Weekly, citing the The Roanoke Times, is reporting that Timothy Heaphy appears to have been chosen to be the next United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. ((Peter Vieth. “Heaphy may be choice for US Attorney.” 6 May 2008. The VLW blog. <http://www.valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/2009/05/06/heaphy-may-be-choice-for-us-attorney/>.)) ((Mike Gangloff. “Richmond lawyer apparent pick for Western District U.S. attorney.” 6 May 2009. The Roanoke Times. <http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/203785>.)) For those unfamiliar with the nomination process for U.S. Attorneys, the Senators representing the state — in this case, Jim Webb and Mark Warner — nominate lawyers to the President who ultimately makes the decision.

I really know very little about Timothy Heaphy, but I do know this: On August 8, 2006, Heaphy contributed $500 to Jim Webb’s (D) campaign. ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?27020221757>.)) On February 27, 2008, Heaphy contributed $500 to Mark Warner’s (D) campaign; he contributed another $200 to Warner (D) on September 15, 2008. ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28020162256>.)) ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28020573333>.)) He contributed $401 to Barack Obama’s election campaign on February 22, 2008 and another $1,000 to the “Obama Victory Fund” on October 24, 2008. ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28930938587>.)) ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28934785774>.)) He’s also contributed $500 to the “Forward Together PAC”, a Democratic leadership PAC on May 19, 2006. ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?26950184768>.)) He’s also contributed $1,000 ($500 on March 26, 2008, and another $500 on September 28, 2008) to Representative Tom Perriello’s (D) election campaign against Virgil Goode. ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28990842857>.)) ((Federal Election Commission. <http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28933520860>.))

And folks, that’s just for federal candidates. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Heaphy has contributed $2,037 to various state candidates and PACs, all Democratic in nature: $500 to Tim Kaine (D) for Governor (12/10/2003), ((Virginia Public Access Project.)) $200 to Creigh Deeds for Attorney General (08/08/2005), ((Virginia Public Access Project.)) $250 to “Moving Virginia Forward” a leadership PAC of Tim Kaine’s (04/27/2007), ((Virginia Public Access Project.)) $247 in-kind to Constance Brennan for Delegate (09/14/2007), ((Virginia Public Access Project.)) $300 to Creigh Deeds for Governor (06/30/2008), ((Virginia Public Access Project.)) $300 to Brian Moran for Governor (06/30/2008), ((Virginia Public Access Project.)) and $240 in-kind to Steve Shannon for Attorney General (12/12/2008). ((Virginia Public Access Project.))

Timothy Heaphy may be an exceptional prosecutor and may do a great job prosecuting cases in the Western District of Virginia, after all, he has a dozen years of prosecutorial experience in federal courts, however, it still looks like political cronyism. And ironically enough, Heaphy penned an article for Legal Times titled “Good Choice, Sir: Let’s Try a Truly Merit-based System for Picking U.S. Attorneys”.

Let’s review Rob Wittman’s previous comments and actions regarding earmarks.

On February 7, 2008, Rob Wittman voted for a moratorium on the submission of earmark requests in the House of Representatives; the moratorium, however, failed to pass. The same day, he issued a press release condemning Speaker Nancy Pelosi for opposing the moratorium.

By the end of April 2008, Wittman had submitted $132,500,000 in earmark requests. Included in that amount were three earmark requests totaling $3,125,000 designated to the organization of a major campaign contributor.

By February 2009, several of those earmarks had survived the committee process and had become part of H.R. 1105 (the Omnibus Spending Bill). By the time it came up for an up-or-down vote on H.R. 1105, there were 15 earmarks with Wittman’s name on them totaling $37,661,500, including one for $95,000 for the organization of that campaign contributor. In the end, Wittman voted against the appropriates bill. Here’s a press release that Wittman posted on his website regarding H.R. 1105:

Today, Congressman Rob Wittman voted against H.R. 1105: the Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2009 or “omnibus” spending bill. To date, only three of the twelve bills funding the government have been approved. Consequently, all domestic functions of the government are being funded through a continuing resolution that expires on March 6, 2009. Wittman has advocated maintaining vital programs included in the bill by freezing current spending rates at Fiscal Year 2008 levels. The spending increases in the bill would grow the budget deficit by $1.4 trillion in Fiscal Year 2009, and the bill is project to result in a deficit of $8.7 trillion in ten years.

“At a time when American families are tightening their belts, the government should be doing the same. We shouldn’t be irresponsibly placing more debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren,” said Wittman.

[…]

“There has been no oversight of the over 8,000 earmarks the bill funds and no opportunity to offer amendments to cut spending. The committee process has been circumvented allowing no review by elected Members of Congress and certainly no transparency for American citizens who want to know where their hard earned dollars are going to,” added Wittman.

[…]

The Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2009 ultimately passed the House by a vote of 245-178.

He even posted a video on his YouTube channel complaining about the earmarks:

And now he’s requested another $94,676,000 in earmarks.

Can someone explain to me if Wittman thinks the system for earmarks is so broken, why is he so willing to submit and have his name on earmarks that will be approved through that process? Is it because his earmarks are so great and everyone else’s are so bad?

Isn’t that the definition of hypocrisy?

Virginia Fusion Center: Black and Christian colleges and universities “potential breeding grounds for terrorism”.

UPI:

Colleges and universities in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area are potential breeding grounds for terrorism, a state police report contends.

A 200-page report issued by the state police’s Virginia Fusion Center says terror and extremist groups have links to the state’s schools, singling out unnamed historically black colleges and the evangelical Christian Regent University, the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday.

Apparently referring to Norfolk State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va., and Virginia Union University in Richmond, Va., the report notes that the Hampton Roads region has a diverse population and warns that “a wide variety of terror or extremist groups” have links to its universities, the newspaper said.

The report does not explain why the black schools are singled out. It drew criticism from Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office, who mentioned the Virginia report in congressional testimony last week.

Such bulletins, she reportedly said, “would be laughable except that they come with the imprimatur of a federally backed intelligence operation, and they encourage law enforcement officers to monitor the activities of political activists and racial and religious minorities.”

Gotta agree with the ACLU on this one.

You know, I’m starting to get annoyed with attacks on my “leftist” blog “that is used almost exclusively to support the Democrat Party”.

Seriously, two people made those comments.

The “leftist” comment comes from OKC Truther Catherine Crabill in an e-mail which was posted in a previous thread:

Feel free to share this with anyone who cares. I will not be bullied by a leftist blog who wouldn’t understand the truth or rightousness or freedom if it bit him you-know-where.

And then you have Allen Webb attacking someone for expressing his concern about the fact that there’s an OKC Truther who’s the presumptive nominee for the state’s legislative body:

To peddle a “quote”, opinion or analysis from a blog that is used almost exclusively to support the Democrat Party, which was motivated by a person who has expressly stated that he has (and still) supports Albert Pollard (the liberal Democrat incumbent whom this candidate will face), is reprehensible.

Holy cow, when did Bill Bolling, Ken Cuccinelli, and DJ McGuire (see right sidebar) become Democrats? I swore I was supporting them due to their impeccable conservative credentials, but alas, it must be because they’re Democrats.

I’m sure former Caroline County Supervisor Calvin Taylor, former Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Latney, and former Sheriff Homer Johnson (all Democrats) would get a good laugh out of that diatribe for sure.

Webb’s comments boils down to the fact that he has absolutely no defense to the fact that he’s supporting a candidate that has gone on the record several times saying that the federal government was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, so he has to result to ad hominem attacks. “Oh, he just supports Democrats, ipso facto, he’s lying!” I guess The Washington Times, Outside Magazine, High County News, and Catherine Crabill herself must also support Democrats “exclusively” as well, since they’re the ones responsible for the quotations.

For crying out loud, this woman has stated herself, both on blogs and e-mails to Allen Webb, that the federal government was responsible for this:

But don’t believe your lying eyes, after all, this is a “leftist” blog “that is used almost exclusively to support the Democrat Party”.

Catherine Crabill’s insanity demonstrated in her own words.

From the High Country News:

Catherine Crabill of Aragon, N.M., in Catron County, is furious at Outside magazine’s November article, “War for the West.” She writes in a letter to Outside published in the Hatch, N.M., Courier: “By golly, I never would have recognized my husband or myself in your “article” had it not had our names attached to it! What drivel!’

To correct the impression Outside gave that she and her husband were off the wall, Crabill describes her real views: “That as a result of Presidential Executive Order, the Sec. of the Treasury holds all the power of the Executive Branch and answers to the globalist elite. That there is an agenda that is in our Public Law to surrender our country to the United Nations, and that we are on the verge of having our economy pulled out from under us by all of the above. I mean, it just goes on and on! And these globalists just love you greenies for helping their program along.”

But Crabill confesses to a shameful earlier period when she “sat with you people for years in places like Aspen’s Pour La France quaffing croissants and cappuccinos, talking custom Italian racing bicycles (All campy, of course …) and gear ratios. I’ve hung with you people on the sundeck of Aspen Mountain, skiing out of bounds …”

“… on behalf of myself and my family, I thank all of my dear friends and neighbors in Catron Country for teaching us what it means to be dear friends and neighbors, and forgiving me for having been one of you-people in a former life.” ((Ed Marston. “Heard Around the West.” High Country News. 11 Dec 1995. <http://www.hcn.org/issues/49/1510>.))

Gotta love how she’s smashing environmentalists when the chairman of the 99th Legislative District Republican Committee, Allen Webb, was attacking Delegate Pollard for supposedly failing to bring “‘green’ businesses” to the area.