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We all know how crazy Representative Thelma Drake is (see here, here, here, here and here), but this is quite hilarious. Drake plans to rally Congress behind the war in Iraq (yeah right) by calling on Angelina Jolie to testify that last year’s surge of troops “appears to be working.”
Read more after the jump.
Governor Tim Kaine and Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder have hit the campaign trail to rally support for Barack Obama! Kaine is scheduled to make a stop in Texas where polls show Clinton and Obama to be neck and neck.
Kaine will stop in Topeka, Kansas, to deliver the keynote address for a Kansas Democratic Party dinner before heading on to Texas for stops in Galveston and Houston.
Tuesday’s primaries in Texas and Ohio are considered pivotal for Obama’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, whom many say must win them in order to keep her presidential bid alive.
Continue reading after the jump!
We all know how bad Wal Mart is for America, despite claims to the contrary by the company itself and even some politicians, but let’s take a look at specifically how they’re short changing Virginia, shall we?
Wal Marts operating in Virginia owe at least some of their success to Delegate Tim Hugo (R-Centreville) and his overwhelmingly Republican sub-committee who continue to allow Wal Mart to take advantage of a tax loophole that allows the company to pay rent to itself and write it off as an expense!
According to an article in The Daily Press, six states have already closed this loophole or are in the process of doing so. So why hasn’t Virginia followed!?
Six more states either have closed, or are in the process of closing, this tax loophole — six more states that can thank Virginia for the cost-savings their consumers reap along with the added corporate tax revenue in their state coffers.
So here’s a question for Delegate Hugo: Why do you continue to oversee a sub-committee that allows Wal Mart to strip Virginia of, at bare minimum $6.3 million in a time of such economic hardship? Why do you continue to let Wal Mart rob the Commonwealth when we’re already dipping in to the state’s rainy day fund (thank you Mark Warner, by the way!)??
Wal-Mart doesn’t rent its buildings, of course. It owns them, but through a special subsidiary that rents them to another subsidiary that runs stores. No cash changes hands; one subsidiaries account is debited; another’s is credited. But by such a setup, Wal-Mart is able to reduce the taxes it pays in Virginia.
And how does Wal Mart defend itself?
Wal-Mart’s defense is that it passes any savings on to customers. Follow that logic, and the state should give tax breaks to all retailers, car dealers, home sellers, banks and everyone else who charges citizens, on the assumption that they’d pass on the savings. Carried to its conclusion, this kind of thinking would exempt all commercial activity from taxes and put the entire burden of financing government on individual taxpayers. That doesn’t make sense.
And finally, here’s a look at just what Virginia could do with that extra $6.3 million which is again, a BARE MINIMUM estimate:
Even if the lawmakers are leaving just $6.3 million on the table by preserving this loophole — though the total may be much higher — that amount would pay for 100 teachers. Or 50 police officers plus 50 investigators to track down child pornographers on the Internet. Or full scholarships so 2,500 people from working-class families could go to community colleges. Or mental health care for thousands of returning combat veterans. Or upgrades to a couple of sewage treatment plants to cut the pollution they put into rivers.
Or just a little break for the ordinary, not-so-well-connected taxpayers of Virginia.
I personally refuse to shop at Wal Mart, and have written extensively as to why, but we can no longer call for the company to turn itself around because it is clear (and has been clear for some time now) that they are not going to do so. It’s time for our representatives to stand up to Wal Mart and tell them to stop screwing over Virginia and the rest of America!!
[Cross posted on Daily Kos and Democratic Central]
Virginia Republicans (EVERY.LAST.ONE.OF.THEM!) vote against energy efficiency bill. [Raising Kaine
Immigrant crackdown in Prince William to begin next week. [Richmond Times Dispatch]
Kaine slams Virginia Senate Republicans. [Washington Post]
Virginia Senate passes budget stripping Planned Parenthood of state funding. - [Cobalt6]
The Commonwealth undeniably loathes the DWJ bloggers. [Daily Whackjob]
Senator Jim Webb offers new G.I. bill to give military veterans full college tuition. - [The Daily Press]
Governor Tim Kaine, who endorsed Obama earlier last year says he believes Democratic superdelegates will throw their support behind Barack Obama and the party will avoid a potentially damaging and divisive brokered convention. Yesterday on Fox News Kaine said that by early March the momentum will be pretty clear.
“The momentum by early March will be pretty clear,” Kaine, a national co-chairman of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, said yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.”
“My sense has been in talking to uncommitted superdelegates that they are going to follow that momentum,” Kaine said.
“If she’s not able to win both, I think it makes it mathematically very difficult for her” to amass the 2,025 delegates needed to gain the party’s nomination, he said.
Although I’d question as to how much more clear it could possibly get. Obama has won 10 contests in a row, and Clinton absolutely embarrassed herself in several episodes over the weekend (see here and here), and then again in last night’s debate where she actually tried to use a satirical Saturday Night Live skit to mount an “argument” as to why she always seems to get the first question (she has actually only gotten the first question in six out of the last 10 debates).
Governor Kaine also stated on the program that Barack Obama could very well carry Virginia in the general election. He would be the first Democrat to do so since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
And what does Kaine have to say about his name being tossed around as a possible Vice Presidential candidate?
“It’s nice to be on lists — my mom likes it if I’m on a list,” Kaine said, but “I do have a very important job at hand.”
Commonwealth Snapshot is a new daily (or semi-daily) post I’m going to try out here offering a quick snapshot of some of the “hot topics” and latest news across Virginia and the Virginia blogosphere. Enjoy!!
Senator John Warner hospitalized with heart ailment. [Raising Kaine]
Conservatives say McCain could be “doomed” if he doesn’t go negative on Obama. [Swac Girl]
Thelma Drake facing toughest election yet. [Daily Press via RK]
Karen Thomas Kolber of Virginia Beach and “fundraiser extraordinaire” will head up fundraising for Netroots Nation 2008 (formerly known as YearlyKOS). [VB Dems]
State Senate to vote on expanding arrest powers. [Democratic Central]
List of endorsements for Leslie Byrne continues to grow. [Byrne for Congress via Bryan J. Scrafford]
While the rest of the Senate was enjoying their one week vacation away from Washington, Senator Jim Webb was here on Friday presiding over an empty Senate chamber, calling the empty chamber to order. Webb was here, as he has been in previous recesses, to preside over the Senate pro-forma session.
Why is this important? Well the Senate pro-forma session is here to prevent George Bush from avoiding the Senate confirmation process (as he has done in the past) by making cabinet appointments while Congress is in recess.
I think I speak for all of your constituents when I say thank you Senator Webb!
Ralph Nader will run, and ultimately fail in another bid for the Presidency. Traditionally in his 492 campaigns to become President, Ralph Nader has taken votes away from Democratic candidates (most notably in Florida in 2000), but I’m not so sure that will be the case this time. With Ron Paul already having said he will not run as a third party candidate, who’s to say Paul supporters won’t throw their support behind Nader?
It may seem silly since Ron Paul is sort of seen as the Libertarian choice (even though he’s not a Libertarian by any stretch), while Nader is generally “pro-government” and supports many regulatory agencies. However, “anti-elitism” is huge with supporters of Ron Paul and they are likely to find common ground with Nader when it comes to corporate power as well. In addition, Ron Paul supporters generally tend to look at both major political parties as “the bad guys” so at this point, one could argue, any third party candidate would likely gain the support of the Paul supporters (once Paul finally officially drops out).
Finally, here’s a clip of Barack Obama responding to a question regarding his feelings on Nader entering the race:
[Cross posted at Raising Kaine and Daily Kos]
Hillary Clinton just doesn’t get it. Democrats are overwhelmingly rejecting negative campaign attacks between herself and opponent Barack Obama as evidenced in the last debate between the two where she was actually booed when the crowd perceived her to be attacking Obama. Then, on a campaign stop today in Ohio with Democratic Governor Ted Strickland, she lashed out at Obama in perhaps one of the most desperate (and sad) attempts to remain relevant this campaign season.
“Shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public — that’s what I expect from you,” Clinton said angrily, waving the mailings in the air.
“Meet me in Ohio, and let’s have a debate about your tactics,” she added.
Uh, Hillary, Obama never claimed he wouldn’t tell the truth. Your health care plan will in fact punish people who don’t purchase health care. And who do you think can’t afford to purchase health care to avoid government penalties you would impose?
Hillary went on to say:
“Enough about the speeches, and the big rallies, and then using tactics right out of Karl Rove’s playbook. This is wrong and every Democrat should be outraged,” Clinton said.
Since when is there something wrong with giving a speech or being an eloquent speaker? Since when is there anything wrong with holding huge rallies? I mean, have you ever seen a candidate fill 20,000 seat arenas to the capacity in large cities across the country? Since when have we ever had a candidate assemble such a diverse and energized coalition of voters so early in a Presidential election season? This is an exciting time to be a Democrat and Hillary Clinton trying to “divide and conquer” Democratic voters is a carbon copy of a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook.
All of this just days after she expressed how honored she was to be running against Barack Obama at the Democratic debate in Houston on February 21:
“No matter what happens in this contest…and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama, I am absolutely honored, and you know…whatever happens, we’re gonna be fine, you know we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same thing about the American people; and that’s what this election should be about.”
[Cross posted at Raising Kaine and Daily Kos.]
UPDATE:
Media Bloodhound reports via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the members of the Secret Service supposed to be responsible for protecting Barack Obama, actually stopped searching people for weapons prior to Obama’s speech at Reunion Arena in Houston on Wednesday. With more than 17,000 people packing the building apparently they just, ya know, obviously getting people in the building faster is so much more important than making sure the event is safe. Perhaps even more disturbing was the fact that Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions said it seemed to be a “friendly crowd.” And there you have it, because I’m sure he interviewed all 17,000 of them as well.
Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.
The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.
Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order — apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service — was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.
“Sure,” said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a “friendly crowd.”
In addition, several members of the Dallas police force, speaking on condition of anonymity because they said the order had came from federal officials, expressed concern that the arena was packed with people who had received no “inspection” what so ever.
Via Media Matters:
From the February 19 edition of Westwood One’s The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly:
O’REILLY: Maryanne, Woodbury, Connecticut: What say you, Maryanne? Maryanne –
CALLER: I’m here.
O’REILLY: — you’re on the air.
CALLER: Here I am.
O’REILLY: OK.
CALLER: I just wanted to say that I think Michelle Obama is an angry woman — is speaking, I think, with her real voice for the first time. And –
O’REILLY: But how do you — what do you base that on? You’re basing that on what?
CALLER: Well, your representative asked me not to talk about this, but I have a friend who had knowledge of her and said to me months ago, “This is a very angry,” her word was “militant woman.”
O’REILLY: All right. What I want you do then, Maryanne, if — I want you to stay on the line.
CALLER: OK.
O’REILLY: Because it’s not fair to Michelle Obama for you –
CALLER: Oh no, all I’m saying is –
O’REILLY: — because we don’t know who you are, and we don’t know who your friend is, but we want to know. We want to know, OK. But it’s not fair at this point for you to say, “My friend said X and Y,” because we just don’t know. But if you would give us your information, we would like to talk to your friend. And then whatever your friend tells us, we’ll track it down. We’ll do it in a fair and balanced and methodical way. That’s how we’re going to cover this campaign — all of them, all of them. So stay on the line, give us your information. If indeed Michelle Obama is angry about something, if she has a history, we would like to know that, and then we can put it into some kind of context so that we can be fair to everybody.
You know, I have a lot of sympathy for Michelle Obama, for Bill Clinton, for all of these people. Bill Clinton, I have sympathy for him, because they’re thrown into a hopper where everybody is waiting for them to make a mistake, so that they can just go and bludgeon them. And, you know, Bill Clinton and I don’t agree on a lot of things, and I think I’ve made that clear over the years, but he’s trying to stick up for his wife, and every time the guy turns around, there’s another demagogue or another ideologue in his face trying to humiliate him because they’re rooting for Obama.
That’s wrong. And I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that’s how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that’s legit. We’ll track it down.
How much longer is this man going to have a job? The answer would (and should) be not long (NOTE: you see how swiftly MSNBC dealt with the David Shuster situation), but since it’s Fox News, and their viewers (and radio listeners, as is the case here) actually support this kind of talk, and it’s truly saddening.
Just days after the Service Employees International Union endorsed Barack Obama for President he has picked up another important Union endorsement. According to the AP the Teamsters Union is now set to endorse Obama.
Union officials say the powerful Teamsters union will endorse Barack Obama.
The officials say the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is expected to make an official announcement later Wednesday. Teamster President James P. Hoffa plans to meet with Obama in Austin, Texas, before an announcement is made.
The Teamsters represent 1.4-million members, and are considered one of the largest and most powerful unions. They also are a potent source of campaign cash and get-out-the-vote workers for Democrats.
As we all know endorsements don’t necessarily mean voters will follow, but it is important when it comes to building structure in your campaign and Unions especially are good at getting out the vote. Also, up until now Hillary has pretty much had the “blue collar” or “working class” vote on her side. However last night in Wisconsin, and with this endorsement is appears that that too may be shifting towards Obama.
If this report from Talking Points Memo has any truth behind it, Clinton could be trying to go after Obama’s pledged delegates (NOT super delegates, but delegates who are supposed to represent OUR vote), including the 54 Obama won in Virginia’s primary last week.
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.
This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. And I am not talking about super delegates, those 795 party big shots who are not pledged to anybody. I am talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.
Wow, just wow.
Why a budget surplus is a good thing:
The House also recommends using only about $220 million from the state’s $1.2 billion “rainy day” cash reserves to cushion the projected revenue shortfall on the current budget. Kaine had initially recommended about $261 million, but increased it last week to $423 million.
With “hard times” forthcoming ahead of an economic slow down within our state after the extraordinary growth over the past few years, isn’t it nice to have the “luxury” of being able to rely on such a large supply of cash reserves thanks to the responsibility of Governor Warner? Who, much to the dismay of many on the right, was intelligent enough to realize that enormous economic growth does not continue forever, but rather in (generally natural) “peaks and valleys” and that we would need to rely on our “rainy day fund” eventually.
Next time those of you who have a conniption and begin hollering for a “refund” of “your” money every time the government is running a surplus, remember this!
I know most people that use Wordpress say it’s infinitely better than Blogger, except for the fact that Wordpress isn’t very customizable (at least as far as Java apps and html go) unless you self host and use Wordpress.org. The lack of html customization options is the ONLY reason keeping me away from Wordpress for so long, but a friend recently offered to host my blog and set me up on Wordpress.org - so I am happy to announce that I will finally be moving to Wordpress in the next couple of months once I build the site out and get settled in over there. I’ll keep updating as to my progress and when the switch will occur. Until then, I’ll continue posting here on a regular basis. 
She is obsessed! 18 debates so far and more to come and she’s upset because he “won’t debate the issues” in Wisconsin:
Hey Hillary, why don’t you debate yourself (you can even do it with your friends over at at Fox News!):
This is absolutely hilarious! Looks like the craaazy Ron Paul followers have gotten so upset over a blog posts from a school teacher that they’ve posted his name, telephone number and even his address on the Ron Paul forums on his web site of defeat. Check out the teacher’s blog post:
This week my math students are working on graphs and charts. Since Virginia held its primaries on Tuesday, I decided to work a little social studies into the lesson by using election figures as the data. I’d have liked to use Virginia’s figures but since people were still voting here that wasn’t possible. Instead I used national delegate counts for both parties and made bar graphs and pie charts to show visually how Clinton and Obama were neck and neck (with Edwards way on the bottom) and McCain was kicking everyone’s ass.
Then I talked about how those were national results but every state voted on its own and every state was different. I talked about how Obama crushed Hillary in Illinois and Hillary stomped Obama in New York and Delaware was more or less even and how all the states that voted so far combined added up to an even race. Then I posted the results of the most recent primary then available (Louisiana) to show how different statewide and national races could be, showing a big Obama win there and a narrow Huckabee victory even though he was getting squashed nationally.
Then we talked about line graphs showing change in a single measure over time and I used what I could remember of Republican polls going back to last year to show the rise and fall of candidates’ fortunes. I made up my data, but made sure it followed the general trends. Giuliani’s lead in the polls disintegrating as the months went by, McCain’s free-fall and revival, Huckabee’s rise, and Ron Paul’s Ron-Paulitude.
That was actually the best part for me — getting to make fun of Ron Paul and getting all the students to join in. Didn’t even have to attack his assinine policies, just showed him on the bottom of the GOP opinion polls month after month, and every time I added a new month’s worth of Data and talked about the other candidates rising or falling, and extending the lines on their graphs, I’d end with “and Ron Paul stayed flat” and add another segment to his straight line near the zero marker. The kids loved the running gag. They started to join in, chorusing “and Ron Paul stayed flat!” Some of them even got a little impatient as I talked about the rest of the candidates: “and what about Ron Paul?” “He stayed flat.” Cheers.
“And Fred Thompson dropped out of the race, dropping his numbers to zero, so Ron Paul finally got ahead of someone.” Laughter. It was sweet.
My biggest regret was that one of my students asked me what the difference between the two parties was, but since it was technically a math lesson I couldn’t switch over to civics entirely and fully answer that — or answer at all at the time, really. I did get to talk to her about it a little in the hallway later, but didn’t get to lecture the whole class. Ah, well, can’t have everything.
And what did the Ron Paul losers have to say in the comments?
Shall we? 1 socialist parasite + The Internet = Another worthless article on the internet that nobody cares about.
Have a nice day!
There is a very good reason that what you are doing with your graphs is not only wrong, but unethical and illegal. I see no problem with using polls as a teaching aid, but when you interject opinion, you are serving these children a personal agenda. That is wrong. Unfortunately, you have spoiled a good opportunity to teach by coloring your project with your personal preferences. You now need to select a subject for your graphs that is objective and stop teaching in a subjective manner. I am a taxpayer and it is not up to you to try to politically influence the young impressionable minds of children at my expense.
You are absolute SCUM!! Making “fun” of Ron Paul? The only honest candidate in the race, who is not bought and paid for like the other hacks. The only candidate with REAL solutions to our massive problems. Shame on you. Unbelievable!!
Another ideologue educator destroying young minds. You are hateful and stupid. Sad.
HAHA they’re so silly. What this teacher did was neither illegal nor dishonest, you know, since he used actual numbers from the election to teach the graphs and all. I’m so sorry that facts pain Ron Paul supporters so much.
The teacher even edited his blog post to add the following:
Edit: in response to the spamming by mostly anonymous Paultards I’ve reset the comment status on this post to friends only.
Read more:
[Ron Paul supporters are lunatics!!]
[Ron Paul is [still] insane]
[Ron Paul supporters are nuts (Part 3!!)]
[h/t Wonkette]
A sneak peak into what a John McCain presidency (:shudder:) would look like: