Category: 2010 election

Kenny Golden (Republican candidate in the second district): People in the military are prohibited from having sex.

Oh, really Kenny?:

Virginia Beach, VA – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, stated on Tuesday his support of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

2nd District Congressional Candidate Kenny Golden, who served with Admiral Mullen and knows him well, vehemently disagrees.

“While Admiral Mullen is a trusted and admired friend, he and I differ completely on this matter. The issue at hand is not civil rights, but discipline and unit cohesion. Any sexual conduct, homosexual or heterosexual, is strictly prohibited. We are not denying anyone their civil rights just because they cannot announce they are homosexual.”

Well, hot damn, did you guys know that sexual conduct by heterosexual members of the military was prohibited? News to me. So all those military folk you see getting married, I guess they never consummate their marriages?

And I do enjoy people that use straw men, in this particular case, comparing otherwise legal sexual activity with fraternization.

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

Dave Marsden admits fraudulent voter registration.

A month ago Dave Marsden was saying that he was living in the 37th district, now he’s saying he will “eventually” move to the district.

In this vain, I’m hereby announcing my intention to run against State Senator Edd Houck (D-17th). I don’t live in the district currently and I more than likely won’t be in the district by the time of they do redistricting in 2011, but I guarantee you that I will be properly renting someone’s basement or guest room before I file for my run.

And I guarantee you, my future constituents, that I will move to the district following my win.

Maybe, if I feel like it.

It really depends on what the housing prices are by that time.

And if I can get a loan.

But I guarantee you!

Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.

“Tea partiers” in the 5th against Eric Cantor before they were for him?

Last week, the various far-righters in the 5th Congressional District were incensed that Eric Cantor would dare to contribute $7,000 (through his campaign committee and his personal funds) to the Congressional campaign of State Senator Robert Hurt. These little tirades included throwing around words like “RINO” and whatnot with allegations that Cantor was not a ‘true conservative’ and so on and so forth (for an example, check out the 5th District blog).

Then came news today that certain “tea party” leaders were attempting to recruit former Representative Virgil Goode to run against Perriello, notwithstanding Goode’s lost to Perriello in 2008.

Now, I’m far from a fan of Eric Cantor (and there are posts to prove that), but maybe these “tea party” folks should go take a look at Virgil Goode’s own campaign contributions. According to Virgil Goode’s campaign finance reports (through September 30, 2009), Virgil Goode’s campaign committee has contributed a total of $1,500 to Cantor for Congress ($500 to Cantor for Congress on March 31, 2009, and an additional $1,000 on July 21, 2009).

So, what’s worse, receiving money from Cantor or giving Cantor money?

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

Virgil “North American Union” Goode running in the 5th?

Looks like those crazy teabaggers are trying to draft Virgil Goode according to The WaPo.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Goode decided to run since he’s been using his campaign money to pay for campaign stuff through September (the end of the last reporting period), including phone and internet service, web hosting, and photography. And at the end of the last reporting period (September 30th, 2009), Goode still had $126,832 on hand.

The origin of the “North American Union” joke is a resolution that Virgil Goode sponsored back in 2007 which was to “[e]xpress[] the sense of Congress that the United States should not […] enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada” (H.CON.RES.40). For those unfamiliar with the “North American Union”, it’s the favorite topic of those one-world government conspiracy theorists which think believe that NAFTA is the end of the United States and blah, blah, blah. If you’re unfamiliar with the “literature” on that particular theory, check out Wikipedia.

And it’s always fun when a ‘free-market constitutionalist’ (or whatever those teabaggers want from Goode) is opposed to free-trade. Because capitalism is bad, mkay?

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

Tip: If 96.17% of your campaign funding comes from yourself, don’t brag about your cash-on-hand.

Because you look like a dork when you do. And this is a tip that Laurence Verga needs to take to heart:

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VA – It is clear from the State Senator’s [Robert Hurt’s] finance report that he is the preferred choice of Richmond lobbyists and Washington insiders. However, their support will not buy the votes of the citizens of the 5th District, who have not forgotten his continuous lying about his atrocious record of voting for higher taxes six times, including the largest tax increase in Virginia history and trying to raise taxes unconstitutionally. His report only further confirms that I [Laurence Verga] am the only conservative candidate that can go toe-to-toe with him, as I have reported over $217,000 cash on hand.

Blah, blah, blah.

Is it something worth bragging about having hundreds of thousands of dollars from California land deals to buy an election? What a pompous blowhard.

And should I mention the contribution from San Francisco?

And as an side, during elections, I end up coming with names to mock certain politicians, usually because of something they say or because I accidentally mispronouncing their name. In this case, the other day I referred to Laurence Verga as “Lou Bega”. Hopefully I’m not the only the person that remembers Lou Bega, if so, he’s a link to video of his one-hit (I would embed the video directly, but some of the content might be too sexually “provocative” for some of my readers; I would rate it PG-13 at most).

Frankly, Lou Bega has more qualifications to be in Congress than Laurence Verga.

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

Samuel Wurzelbacher to endorse Laurence Verga.

“Who?”

Samuel Wurzelbacher is probably better known as “Joe the Plumber”.

He’s the same guy that said that people who disagreed with him should be shoot and that reporters should be prohibited from publishing news about wars.

I wonder if Verga includes those positions on his plank.

Maybe someone should tell Wurzelbacher his fifteen minutes of fame ended over a year ago.

Did you know? Only 5.15% of Krystal Ball’s campaign contributions from individuals come from within the 1st Congressional District.

That’s what her campaign finance disclosure reports show through September 30, 2009.

$13,700 from nine donors (one of whom is her husband who chipped in $4,800) from within in the district.

Only $23,400 (8.79%) from within all of Virginia.

Meanwhile, she’s received $87,093 (32.71%) from the state of California. If you don’t include the money from her husband in the contributions from the 1st district, she’s gotten more money from the liberal bastion of San Fransisco ($9,600) than the whole 1st district.

Whose values does she represent?

Meanwhile, Lowell at Blue Virginia calls her a true progressive that can win!!1!!

Yeah, and Patrick Muldoon was a true conservative that could win.

Cross-posted at On The Right and Virginia Virtucon.

Did Lu Ann McNabb (Democratic candidate in the 37th Senate District) fail History 101?

Or perhaps United States Government 101? A letter sent out by the Loudoun County Democratic Committee before the November 2nd election:

Greetings!

The following was written by Lu Ann McNabb who is on the Sully Democratic Committee in Fairfax. I think it brings Sen. Cuccinelli and his tea bagger friends into historic prespective. Read and then click here to forward to all of your VA friends

On Tuesday, vote for Steve Shannon over this extremist.

Sincerely,

Tim Buchholz
Chairman
Loudoun County Democratic Committee

____________________________________________

Yesterday, my husband and I drove to Charlottesville to watch UVA succumb to Duke but that’s another story. On Route 29, we passed a flagpole with the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag flying with the Confederate flag.  As many of you know, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli has adopted “Don’t Tread On Me” as his motto. But those two flags together symbolize Virginia’s shameful past- one of bigotry and intolerance.  I can appreciate Mr. Cuccinelli’s defiance against the federal government by stating he will fight for state’s rights, but let us remember that it was the federal National Guard who protected the black students walking in to schools and universities from angry, screaming crowds.  It was the federal Supreme Court who declared segregated schools as unconstitutional and the federal Justice Department that denied tax exemptions to churches who only allowed white children to attend their classes.  It was also the federal Supreme Court that overturned Virginia’s law disallowing mixed couples to marry. And it was the Congress that gave African-American citizens the right to sit anywhere and have full voting rights.

Let us not forget what the Confederate flag stood for – and I say this as a great-great-great granddaughter of a Confederate who fought in the Alabama regiment and whose cousin owns his musket and sword.  And let us be wary of these two flags that predominate at gun shows, along with the Nazi flag, representing a belief that we should not enact commonsense gun laws because for some reason background checks interferes with one’s freedom to own a gun.  At the same time, these flags reflect a belief that supports governmental interference in the most personal decisions one can make.

More importantly, the pairings of those two flags symbolizes to me what is at stake in this election-whether we remain a moderate state with elected
officials who will solve problems or return to a state with a worldview that we abandoned a long time ago.

Lu Ann

Do I really need to mock the comments comparing Cuccinelli’s beliefs to Nazism?

But there is one comment needs a little special attention: “[…] but let us remember that it was the federal National Guard who protected the black students walking in to schools and universities from angry, screaming crowds.”

Uh, since when was the National Guard a federal agency? Sure, they might be federally funded, but the ability for the President to deploy them within the United States is severely restricted.

Even more important, if she’s referring to the Little Rock Nine, it was the Arkansas National Guard, which has been deployed by Governor Faubus, which prevented black students from entering Little Rock Central High School. It was the deployment of the 101st Airborne Division by President Eisenhower which protected the black students.

Hell, you can even learn all about this by reading a couple paragraphs on Wikipedia:

The Little Rock Nine were a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in September 1957, as a result of The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the historic Brown v. Board of Education case. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, in direct opposition to the Court’s ruling, activated and deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists on 4 September 1957. The sight of a line of soldiers blocking nine black students from attending high school immediately polarized the city.

Attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department requested an injunction against the governor’s deployment of the National Guard from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. Judge Ronald Davies granted the injunction and ordered the governor to withdraw the National Guard on 20 September.[11]

As a result, elements of the division’s 1st Airborne Battle Group, 327th Infantry (bearing the lineage of the old Company A, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment) were ordered to Little Rock by President Eisenhower to enforce the court injunction during the crisis. The division was deployed from September through November 1957, when they were relieved by the U.S. Marshals.

So, did McNabb play a bit of attention during history class, or has she even read anything about the civil rights movement?

We finally have a real choice in the 99th: Ham Sandwich declares for Delegate in the 99th!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HAMILTON “HAM” SANDWICH, ESQ. LAUNCHES WRITE-IN CAMPAIGN FOR 99TH DISTRICT HOUSE OF DELEGATES SEAT

CAROLINE COUNTY, VA – Hamilton “Ham” Sandwich, Esq. today announced his campaign as a Republican write-in candidate for the 99th House of Delegates District on the popular local blog “I’m Surrounded By Idiots” run by Timothy Watson. Ham previously ran for Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney in 2007 as a write-in candidate and received more than 700 votes countywide with votes coming from every precinct in the county according to Prince William County Registrar Betty Weimer.

Mr. Sandwich’s 2007 campaign web site, located at http://www.votehamsandwich.com/, provides voters with background information on the candidate, his rationale for running in that race, a critique of his then-opponent’s record of failure in the job, information on the write-in process and a list of endorsements among other items. Plans are underway to update the site to reflect this latest run and the difficult issues that Virginians are facing today.

In keeping with his commitment to open government and his Jeffersonian conservative ideals, Sandwich is issuing a challenge to both Del. Albert Pollard (D) and Republican challenger Catherine Crabill to engage him in a series of debates and town hall meetings on the issues between now and Election Day – one each week.

Ham believes that it is unconscionable that Delegate Pollard’s campaign website is completely devoid of any issues save for two – “Responsible Governing” and “The Bay.”

In a statement, Ham Sandwich declared, “Why doesn’t Del. Pollard just declare that he is also for ‘Mom,’ ‘Apple Pie,’ and, well, at one time I would have said, ‘Chevrolet,’ but now must use the term, ‘Government Motors.’”

Likewise, Ham joins Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell and his statewide ticketmates Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli in condemning the candidacy of Ms. Crabill who has openly stated on her campaign web site that she believes the U.S. Government was responsible for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Ham, a Virginia native, is a member of the Virginia Bar (Golden Phoenix division) and a partner in the law firm of Dill & Gallinger. He is married and lives with his wife and children in Bowling Green, Virginia.

UPDATED: What the heck is the First Congressional District Republican Committee smoking?

UPDATE: Chairman Tom Foley of the First Congressional District Republican Committee had this to say in an e-mail:

Dear Mr. Watson,

At its June meeting the committee authorized $1,500.00 to each of the three challengers running  either against an incumbent or for an open seat in the district.

The 3,000.00 you cite is not correct.  I looked up the SBE report, and upon inquiry have been told that campaign staff filed that report with SBE in person and were instructed to show the single contribution in two places. It is now being corrected.

Okay, but this raises an even bigger issue: If Catherine Crabill received only $1,500 from the committee and not $3,000, that means her campaign committee currently has a balanced of -$480.61, which isn’t possible either logically (since she discloses no debts) or under state law.

CORRECTION: The math actually works out correctly with the removal of the second $1,500 contribution from the committee.

The campaign finance disclosure reports covering July 1 through August 31 for most candidates were released today by the State Board of Elections and there were some surprises in Catherine Crabill’s report.

On July 13, 2009, the First Congressional District Committee contributed $1,500 to Crabill’s campaign. On August 24, 2009, ten days after Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, Ken Cuccinelli, and Pat Mullins publicly repudiated Crabill and her campaign, the First Congressional District Republican Committee contributed another $1,500 to her campaign.

There are so many things wrong with this I don’t know where to start: First, the committee contributed money to a candidacy of someone that’s obviously insane and believes that the United States government was responsible for, inter alia, the murder of 168 people, including 19 children, in the Oklahoma City bombing. Do I need to stay more? Do the values expressed by Crabill match those held by members and chairman of the First District Committee?

Second, why is the committee contributing money to the candidacy of someone that doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning? As a sidenote on point two, doesn’t incumbent Rob Wittman have two Democratic challengers running against him in 2010? Am I the only person that thinks they could find a better use for this money they’re blowing on Crabill’s campaign?

Third, why is the committee supporting this Crabill which serves to hurt the candidacy of McDonnell et al.? Are they blind to that fact or do they just not care?

All told, Crabill raised $4,538.95 during the reporting period and has $1,019.39 on-hand. Meanwhile, Delegate Albert Pollard raised $14,101 and has $16,301.36 on-hand.

Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.