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Saturday, January 31, 2004More on the 1st District Chichester Resolution Read this line from the FLS article this Saturday: "The 1st District committee is made up of a small minority of Republicans and does not represent the views of all Republicans," Chichester wrote. "I was elected by the voters of the 28th senatorial district, not by a small group in the 1st District committee. I will not be deterred by a small, vocal minority of my party, whose apparent goal is to impair Virginia's traditions of excellence and example-setting capabilities."Now I want you to know something. The 1st District is not made up of a "small minority". 1st District Congressional Committee consists of the unit chairs of each of the counties in the 1st Congressional District. It is not a small minority by any stretch - to the contrary it is the representative majority of the GOP. The debate that occured before the resolution was not short - it was lengthy, but not hotly contested. The debate was angry, upset, incredulous. Republican chairmen are angry that Senator Chichester is proposing $2.6 billion dollars in tax hikes shortly after he campaigned as a tax cutting fiscal conservative. The natives are angry - angrier than I thought they would be. When it came to a vote, only three nays were heard out of the thirty votes on the committee. One from Bob Fountain (Westmoreland) who spoke to the article, another from the YR chairman who wanted more time to come to a conclusion, and another from a chairman that I did not recognize immediately. Here's the kicker. Many of those seeking to censure Russ Moulton for endorsing Mike Rothfeld in the June 2003 primary were quiet. Apologists for Chichester were mute, and not a one spoke in favor of the Chichester tax hikes. Many voted for the resolution - a pleasant change for vindicated conservatives. To put it mildly, the natives are angry and restless. And they are going to remember 2004 without question. I haven't seen resentment like this since Clinton was elected in '92. Senator Chichester Asked to Withdraw on Tax Reform or Switch Parties This was the big news coming from the 1st District GOP Committee that I had to stay quiet on, as requested by the 1st District Committee in order to give Sen. Chichester an adequate amount of time to respond to the resolution passed. Assurred that the response would be e-mailed, I can only assume that Chichester chose not to respond to the resolution, and so the measure was passed. Predictably, the Free Lance-Star has given lip service to Chichester. This has to be the worst part of all, as the resolution gave Sen. Chichester the opportunity to explain himself to the 1st District as to why he supports tax increases just as the Virginia economy is recovering from recession. No such argument has come across my desk - save the FLS article blasting fellow Republicans for standing on principle. The resolution reads as follows: Whereas, we believe the Republican Party of Virginia Creed clearly states our common values;This is disappointing, because the 1st District Committee postponed releasing this resolution in order to provide an appropriate amount of time for Chichester to explain his position. Evidently (and unfortunately), he chose not to do so. I support the resolution. This shows that the leaders of the Republican Party are not and will not sit idle as tax increases are pushed upon us from either outside or inside the party. A clear message needs to be sent - we are drawing the line and making a stand as the party that wants to decrease the tax burden on Virginians, not simply the party that will tax you less. Friday, January 30, 2004AXIS AND ALLIES For those of you who were really into the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series, this is the granddaddy of them all - Axis and Allies! Fortunately for those of us still addicted to the game, there is a strategy site just for us, and surprisingly well done too. Thursday, January 29, 2004SHOCKER: Pro-life legislation reduces the number of abortions So says an MIT researcher writing for the Heritage Foundation: The research, by Harvard-MIT Data Center post-doctoral fellow Michael J. New, is published by the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org). It explains the key role of life-affirming state laws in the substantial decline in the number of abortions during the 1990s-- after a rise in abortions during the 1970s and 1980s.I'm not mocking the study (well yes, in a way I suppose I am) because it does provide some worthwhile information regarding a direct link between pro-life legislation and abortion ratios in the United States. So the next time someone asks you the direct relationship, you can point to this study rather than rely on correlation. Still, in an instance where common sense prevailed, you just have to sit back and wonder sometimes why studies like this are necessary. New form of matter created in lab Now this is cool! To make the condensate the researchers cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero - the temperature at which matter stops moving.And that is the cool part. . . superconductors! If this is as stable as it sounds, and if it can be made as simply as the article suggests (simply being a qualitative word), then this could be a huge breakthrough in modern science and engineering. Iraq Minister Says Saddam's WMD Carefully Hidden Seems as if members of the Iraqi Governing Council are adamant that WMD does exist within Iraq, and that much effort was put into hiding them: Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Thursday Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction had been carefully hidden, but he was confident they could be discovered. Just When You Thought You'd Seen It All. . . Remember the Budweiser commercial from Super Bowls long past - wassup? Well, it seems as if the good people of Israel have finally caught on. Wednesday, January 28, 2004Build Your Own Plane For under $3000 no less. . . Welcome to the home of the Affordaplane, perhaps the simplest, most inexpensive aluminum ultralight you can build today. Using simple hand tools, anyone can complete their own airplane, following our detailed step-by-step construction manual and professionally drawn plans. With a build time of about 250 hours, you can be in the air quickly! Plus you don't need a license to fly it. It's fun to build, and a blast to fly! JasonKenney.net Yes, finally a website from a Kenney brother that can rival my own. JasonKenney.net has arrived, albeit in half of its potential glory. There's quite a bit of stuff on there, from his weblog to audio recordings to his writings (especially his BUSH43 shorts). Check it out. . . . and there was much rejoicing Finally, all bugs worked out (for the meantime). I have a bunch of stuff to post, including some things on Aquinas and Libertarianism from the ROFTERS Yahoo Groups site. ROFTERS, if you are not familiar with the anagram, stands for "Readers of First Things," a monthly publication that discusses religion and politics in the public square. If you have not picked up a copy of First Things, check out the website - a gold mine for thinking conservatives. Tuesday, January 27, 2004We're seeing some progress. . . the blog is working, now te question is whether I can upload new files and such. Stay tuned. Monday, January 26, 2004Still Experiencing Technical Difficulties Well, the transition to the new server occured with much difficulty and incompetence. Now it seems as if these brand new servers are slower than the previous ones! Much slower. . . I'm on a cable connection and the website is coming up much more slowly than the previous ones. Unfortunately it seems as if this is a permanent solution, which may mean that in about a year I'll be looking for a new website provider. Very disappointed with 1PlanHost for their assistance. Saturday, January 24, 2004Experiencing Technical Difficulties I'm switching the ol' website over to a Windows 2003 server this weekend, so if you see some issues, rest assured that it is part of your normal program day. Last night I was in Yorktown for the GOP 1st District meeting. . . much went down. I'll give you the inside information as soon as I can - but what happened was significant in terms of a Republican party unit scolding one of its own. More later. . . Thursday, January 22, 2004Kaba Kick! Now this is something that I want my children playing with. . . Kaba Kick. Wednesday, January 21, 2004Honorable Politics and Honorable Men I just had coffee with a gentleman (a well known GOP activist/leader) who's appreciation, support, and honor for his friends and comrades runs so deeply, he felt ashamed not to be able to do more to the point of tears. I'm not talking about some sanctimonious, political ploy either. . . I mean this was the kind of conversation where you just sat back and said to yourself, "this is a good, honorable man and everything right with politics." Genuinely heartfelt humility that people thought so highly of him, and genuinely upset that he could not do more to help. That folks - is a guy you go to the mat for. I don't want to write too much because I really don't want to give away who it was for fear of embarassing anyone (or taking advantage of the conversation, because it was centered around my candidacy for Spotsy GOP Chair and that's not what this post is about). What an outstanding example of a public servant and a genuinely good will. I walked away tonight feeling both humbled and honored to know him as a person. One of those life lesson things that I'll remember for life. Tuesday, January 20, 2004And the Hits Just Keep On Comin' Former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Miller took a swipe at both Governor Warner's and Chichester's tax plans respectively. How did I come across this information? Why none other than the Republican Party of Virginia, who seems keen to heap criticism on their fellow Republican. . . Employing a conventional, yet rigorous, statistical estimating procedure, we found that by 2006 the Governor's plan would cost the Virginia economy $10 billion annually in personal income - about 3.3 percent. We also found that his plan would cost Virginia some 28,000 jobs - slightly less than 1 percent. To put this in perspective, the impact would reduce the Warner administration's forecast of 90,000 new jobs in 2006 to 62,000. Senator Chichester's plan would cost Virginia's economy more than twice as much - $24 billion (approximately 8 percent) and some 68,000 jobs (just under 2 percent). Our analyses also revealed that across broad categories of income, the expected indirect costs to households more than offsets any savings on taxes. Obviously, the Governor's claim that 65 percent of Virginians would pay lower taxes is highly misleading. It Really Was That Big! Someone in Texas just caught a 121 lb. catfish. Biggest in state history. My father told me some stories about some grates at the bottom of Bagnell Dam in Missouri (the dam that caps off the Lake of the Ozarks). Divers went down there in cages to fix the grates and in short notice asked to be pulled back up. The reason for this was the catfish. Catfish will grow about as large as their environment will allow them to grow. So if you drop a baby catfish in a fish tank, it will grow to a certain proportion to fit in the tank. In a pond, a bit larger. At the bottom of Bagnell Dam, catfish have plenty of room to feed and grow. . . some of the catfish the divers saw at the bottom of the dam were reportedly (and keep in mind that folks from Missouri have the Mark Twain streak in them) large enough to swallow a grown man. At least the divers thought so. Needless to say, that's a big catfish! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Matt Drudge said it best. "Dean Goes Nuts." To hear the audio, give this a try. And turn the speakers up. Heh heh. . . Monday, January 19, 2004The Prisoners Dilemma A good game for all you chaos theorists out there. The object is that you and another individual are trapped inside a box by an evil wizard. At the beginning of the game, you and the individual (arbitrarily named Serendip) must choose between cooperating or competing with each other. Should you both decide to cooperate, you each receive three coins. If you decide to compete and the other chooses to cooperate, you receive five coins and the other recieves none. If you both decide to compete, you both receive one coin. The trick here is that the Wizard is watching, and if your average number drops below some predetermined score, the Wizard will send the winner to an "inconceivably foul fate." Since no one knows the number, both you and Serendip have to maximize your coinage. This may utterly bore some folks, but for philosophers and mathematicians this is gravy! Soak it up! Once you play the game, there is a list of articles and such that you can peruse to see just how interesting this game is for chaos theories, philosophy, mathematicians, and other people who spend their time finding out exactly how many angels dance on the head of a pin. F*** THE NAZIS Churchill may be dead and gone, but his parrot bears testament to Churchill's love for the Nazi dictator. . . Do You Realize - That Everyone You Know Someday Will Die? From the Flaming Lips website, where I have been listening to this song every once in awhile. Its one of those songs that has a perspective to it. "Existentialist" is the word I have heard to describe it, but realist is the word that comes to my mind. For as caught up in the petty things of the world we seem to get, I appreciate the perspective of the song. And no, I'm not turning into one of those webloggers that posts lyrics and bemoans life. . . just enjoying good music. Do You Realize? Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face Do You Realize - we're floating in space - Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know You realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round Do You Realize - Oh - Oh - Oh Do You Realize - that everyone you know Someday will die - And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know You realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face Do You Realize Jews Against Zionism Now here's an interesting website concerning Zionism: From the inception of the Zionist State and particularly in recent times, the impression has been created in the World that there is some connection between the State, which falsely calls itself Israel, and the Jewish people as a whole. Therefore, we who continue to uphold the never-changing tradition of the Jewish people find it proper to again clarify the following points:Wow. Now the whole Labour Party movement for peace vs. the Likud argument for force makes much more sense now. . . Likud with the old Zionist movement, and Labour who sincerely hopes that the time was really right for Jews to return to Israel and sincerely wants peace. Amazing insight. . . Republicans in Charge in Richmond - Hold onto your Wallets Something to mull over. . . just dropped in my e-mail account. Something for Virginians to consider. To: Shaun Kenney From: Roger Pogge Subject: Republicans in Charge in Richmond - Hold onto your Wallets It grieves me to have to write this letter to you at this time. This message is a little long and I respect your time, but if you are concerned about Republicans in the Virginia State Legislature turning their backs on the principles of the Republican Party, then please read on. If you are not concerned about this, stop here and let me know and I will take you off of my list. For those who are not familiar with me, allow me to give a little background. My name is Roger Pogge. My wife Brenda and I have been involved in Republican politics since the Allen/Farris/Gilmore race in 1993. I was elected to the State Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia in 1996. In 1997, my wife recruited our friend, Jo Ann Davis, to run against incumbent Democrat Delegate Shirley Cooper. That year she was the only Republican to defeat an entrenched Democrat in the House of Delegates and Republicans gained parity with the Democrats for the first time since Reconstruction. For the next 3 years, my wife encouraged Jo Ann to get out into the First District, in anticipation of Congressman Herb Bateman's retirement (the rest, shall we say, is history). In 1998 I was elected as First Congressional District Republican Chairman where I served two terms until 2002, at which time I "retired" to spend more time at home and with my aging father. That didn't last long because in 2003, I was drafted to lead the kNOw Campaign in opposition to the Sales Tax Referendum here in the Hampton Roads area. Working with an alliance of anti-tax groups, we were able to defeat the referendum by 63-37%. Some of you may be new to Republican politics here in the Commonwealth. Many have been working in the trenches much longer than my wife and I. One thing that most all of us have in common is that we believe in lower taxes and a more limited government. Many accuse us of being greedy rich Republicans who just want to keep all of our money to ourselves. I'm not sure about all of you, but I am middle-class and I struggle to pay my bills every month just like most others. Of course, we all like to keep more of our money, however, my true motivation for wanting lower taxes (and most Republicans' motivation) is that we believe that government at all levels has gotten too big and unwieldy and needs to its appetite for spending other people's money brought under some kind of control. Our Virginia Republican Creed states that "we believe that fiscal and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all levels of government." That is why it saddens me so to have to write this letter. We have worked long and hard as grassroots Republican activists to get where we are in state government. In the 11 years of my involvement in the Republican Party we have elected two Republican Governors, three Attorneys General, one Lt. Governor, we have taken over the House of Delegates and the State Senate, defeated an incumbent U.S. Senator and picked up three seats in Congress. This didn't happen by chance or by accident. It happened because thousands of people like yourself across the Commonwealth believed in the ideals of the Republican Party and gave of their time, their talents and their treasure. Now that our incumbents in the General Assembly have practically guaranteed their reelection through a masterful job of redistricting, many grassroots Republicans feel as though they have been played for the fool. Our State Senate is rushing headlong into a massive tax increase and many Republicans in the House of Delegates are wavering. Just yesterday (1/17/04), the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star ran an article on House Speaker Bill Howell, who many of us had counted on to continue his stand against a tax increase. He was quoted as saying that he is "open to everything but a sales tax and an income tax increase." Our senators, who were steadfast on holding the line on tax increases during their primaries this past spring are now leading the charge for tax increases. Both Senators Chichester and Potts have reneged on this spring's campaign promises and are openly supporting higher taxes. I will not take the time to debate the merits of a tax increase at this time (we actually have an out-of-control spending crisis). If you need information or talking points on why we shouldn't raise taxes, Senator Ken Cuccinelli has an excellent web site at www.notaxhike.net. When you log on, be sure to electronically sign the "no tax hike" petition at his site. The point of this letter is to encourage you to contact your senators and delegates (especially the Republicans) and tell them no new taxes. A tax overhaul that is truly "revenue neutral" is certainly acceptable. However, be careful. When they try to raise one tax while giving us a 100% car tax cut, don't buy it. The car tax cut is already enacted and is just waiting for state revenues to increase to kick in. Any new taxes need to be countered by a NEW cut in another tax. We have to hold the line if our party is going to have any principles let to stand on at all. Below is contact information for your senators and delegates. Please contact them ASAP and let them know of your concerns. If you don't know who you representative is, log onto the State Board of Elections website at www.sbe.state.va.us and click on "where do I vote." Fill in the address and in addition to your voting location, it will give you your state senate, delegate and congressional district. The General Assembly has a toll-free opinion line if you just want to express your opinion and have it forwarded to your senator and delegate. Call 1-800-889-0229. If you want to speak directly to your representative or their aide, call as follows: Senate (804) 698-75XX, where the XX is the Senate District. Example - Senator Marty Williams is in the 1st Senatorial District. His number is (804)698-7501. To email your senator, send to districtXX@sov.state.va.us . Again, XX is the Senatorial District. Senator Williams would be district01@sov.state.va.us (no period after us). House (804) 698-10XX. Example - Delegate Tom Gear is in the 91st House District. His number is (804) 698-1091. To email your delegate, send to del_lastname@house.state.va.us (an underscore (_) goes between the "del" and the "lastname"). Tom Gear's email address is del_gear@house.state.va.us (again, no period after us). To mail to a senator, send to: The Honorable XXX, Senate of Virginia, P.O. Box 396, Richmond, VA 23219. To mail to a delegate, send to: The Honorable XXX, House of Delegates, P.O. Box 406, Richmond, Virginia 23218 Thanks for taking the time to read through this email. Please make every effort to respond as necessary. Also, please pass this on to your likeminded friends. Yours for a truly conservative majority, Roger F. Pogge Hampton, Virginia Sunday, January 18, 2004A Bold New Vision for a Democratic Majority: Fascism Obviously a parody, I started reading this and found it too good to pass: Anyone who wants to understand why the Democratic Party (barring a catastrophic implosion by the Republicans) will never win another major election in this country need only read this article. It correctly identifies the core problem of the party, which is this: Voters are repulsed by weakness. What it fails to get right is the fact that the Party, as currently constructed, will never be able to get around this problem. Why? Because weakness is inherent in the party’s ideology.Now you have to read through this article in order to understand the reasoning behind it. Warped? Yes. But hilarious none the less. Here's Something to Contemplate This Sunday Morning. . . How big was the original Death Star in comparison to the moon of Endor in Star Wars? This just might be a bit much. . . Saturday, January 17, 2004Musings of a Disconcerted Mind I ended up praying the Liturgy of the Hours tonight, something that I used to do daily but stopped doing because of time, laziness, etc. It was very calming, and something that I genuinely miss doing. One of the knocks against Catholics (or Christians in general) is that we have lost the fine art of spiritual meditation. Prayer is more joy, noise, and song rather than ascetic oneness with God. Simplicity over jubilation I suppose. What many people miss is the tradition of meditation we have in the Catholic faith. On the Eucharist, on the mysteries of the rosary, in prayer, and even during the Mass. Simplicity and mediation are critical features in Christian theology, and beyond the excitement of what has become American spirituality there is a very simple spirit behind it all - a simplicity that is quite pleasant to mediate upon. Why am I writing about this? In all honesty, I am at a discernment period as to whether or not I should run for Spotsylvania GOP Chairman. At this point I am committed, so the term "discernment" may seem misleading. But it's not. Catholic seminarians for instance are all but committed to the priesthood, but in their becoming priests, they appropriately call the process discernment. It's the method and searching for the appropriate call to ministry. So in terms of running for the seat, "discernment" is almost a way of finding out what God exactly wants me to do with the charge given. I have come to several conclusions. First, I have run for party offices before. Every time I ran, I always felt the urge to run because I wanted to be in the forefront of the fight. Do my best, give my all, hold the liberals by the nose and kick them in the rear. When I made my bid for City Council in 2002, I had the same go-get-em attitude that someone had to take on the establishment. When I took the Fredericksburg City GOP Chairman position shortly thereafter, I wanted the position in order to build (nay, rebuild) the GOP in Fredericksburg - a mission I felt we had some degree of success in doing. Something feels different this time. It's almost as if the Spotsy GOP Chairman spot came to me without me seeking the position. Folks on the committee shaking hands and saying, "Hey Shaun, you need to run for chairman next year," and such. The winks, the nods, the attaboys. To some small degree, my time as a panelist with Rappahannock Review has done me well, as the extemporaneous nature of the show has displayed some of my better talents for healthy and good natured debate. In short, I have impressed people. Folks are walking up to me with this confidence and they are genuinely impressed with me as a person, and that both humbles and bothers me. It's humbling for sure because I really don't think of myself as any different than the others on the committee. Sure other folks are older, some more conservative, others less. But by and large if you get them in a room we all say the same things with the same degree of conviction. What bothers me then? Two things - the responsibility and the faith. Before, I was taking the bull by the horns and forcing the issue so to speak. I wanted to get a Teenage Republicans group started in high school. I wanted to be Vice Chairman in Spotsylvania. I wanted to be involved in the College Republicans. I wanted to start the Fredericksburg Young Republicans. I wanted to run for City Council. I wanted to become Fredericksburg GOP Chairman. Now they want me to run for Spotsy GOP Chair. No more I. They. I was happy writing white papers and working on LSAT material and thesis work. Happy being the conservative commentator. Happy to write the op-eds in the Free Lance-Star. Happy to have the bullseye reassigned and be the critic. Now they want me to lead. That's astonishing, because for all of the titles prior to, I never recognized that by picking up the standard that I was looked upon as someone to lead. The battle lines are being drawn up along the same old factions. Instead of being the cheerleader, I'm the guy in charge. Nothing to build 'cause it's already there. No issues to conjure up because they too are already there. No need to get familiarized - these people know who I am and what I stand for. So it's all on me, but in a different way. And this time, it matters whether or not I win or lose. You know, you always think of yourself as one day being an effective leader for change. Forget any talk of ambition and glory-seeking and all that nonsense - that's not what this is about. This is one of those scenarios where it matters, where you are the first line of defense and people are looking to you for leadership, encouragement, fire, and determination. So why am I so scared? Have you ever sat down at a job, or done a project, and felt that flutter in your heart where you know you are doing something you were meant to do? Well, here I am, face to face with what I was meant to do, and enjoying it. This is my vocation, right here, to build this party and make things happen for the better. To find pro-life candidates who are unafraid because we are behind them. To fight the good fight and keep the property tax off the backs of those who can least afford to pay them. To protect the 2nd Amendment. All I want to do is do my duty well. So that is why I started out by turning to God. Thanking him for making me a tool (a worthless one, but a tool for Him nonetheless) and begging for Him to use me as He pleases - not as I please. Twenty-five years, eight years of discernment coming to a conclusion. And the hard work hasn't even begun! Strange thing is, I'm looking forward to it. It's almost as if I was on a roller coaster and getting terribly impatient for the first hill. . . and now I'm in the front car hanging over just waiting for the momentum to shift. And it is in a most terrible way, your heart leaps to your throat and. . . well, the ride begins. Sorry for the long post here, thank you for making it this far if you have. I'm sure that there are a few who will love to pour over the psychobabble for future gain, but I don't particularly care. If I did, I probably wouldn't have the website up! Friday, January 16, 2004Pixelbreaker You know something, I'm entranced. This is very, very cool. Virginia State Defense Force Did you know that the Commonwealth of Virginia has a militia? Not one of those backwater, shoot-'em-up black helicopter sort of militias, but a legitimate militia organized by the Commonwealth of Virginia to support the National Guard: § 44-1. Composition of militia.You know, I always wanted to join the military but couldn't because of my leg and my asthma. Maybe this is a good alternative to miltary service. . . sort of like the Civil Air Patrol, only for the Army - and they could certainly use the help in the war on terror. German Toilets This is only going to be amusing if you have ever experienced the German toilet: Further research has revealed that the German toilet is in fact designed to facilitate stool examination. This is a wise, healthy practice, argue Germans, a person's best defence against intestinal disease, water-borne parasites or worm-riddled, undercooked pork sausage. While this made perfectly good sense around 1900, thanks to improvements in public health the whole shelf business should have become obsolete shortly after World War II.For Americans in Germany, this is always a topic of converstation to newcomers. I vaguely remember German toilets when I was younger, but thankfully the American housing and PX did not kneel to the Germanic porcelain god. Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where they travel to Australia. . . if you know, you know. Saddam is an OUTKAST! Everyone has seen or at least heard the Outkast video with multiple versions of Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 if you prefer) in a early '60s Beatles session - screaming girls and all. Of course, you knew sooner or later that someone would come out with the Saddam parody. . . Thursday, January 15, 2004On Second Thought, Concerning Chichester. . . The First District Committee e-mail list - which consists of both moderate and conservative Republicans - is rumbling about Chichester's tax proposal. RPV is rumbling. Local committee lists are rumbling. The natives are not happy. . . Will it amount to anything? Who knows? But when you start seeing some folks who you know supported Chichester in the June 2003 primary raising eyebrows and asking if anyone is going to do something about it, you know you have touched a nerve. Personally, the only thing that isn't making the consternation an outright rebellion is the confidence folks have in the House and Speaker Howell in turning it down flat. Will the center hold? Stay tuned. . . And the Winner of the 2004 Bloggies goes to. . . Probably not me. What the hell is a Bloggie anyway? 40% There's a 40% chance that I'll win a Bloggie™. What's Your Chance to Win a Bloggie™? Tuesday, January 13, 2004Center for Thomas More Studies This is a remarkable website promoting the works of St. Thomas More, an English statesman who was martyred by King Henry VIII for refusing to recognize the king as the head of the Church in England. As the patron saint of politicians, we could most certainly use more men and women of St. Thomas More's stature in today's political world. Catholic University at Mary Washington, 6pm! The classic CAC matchup. GO CARDINALS! General Assembly Kicks Off Tomorrow! To all those poor souls that are heading down to Richmond, I'm so glad I'm not you!!! FYI for anyone who want to know how bad the Chichester-Howell split is on taxes. It's not. Consternation among the grassroots, but nothing tangible. This is going to be a good old fashioned sit down between the Senate and the House, and thanks to the highly conservative make-up of the House, it doesn't appear as if "tax reform" will go very far. A tax hike on tobacco may be in the works, but not much else. Political long-term, folks aren't angry enough about Chichester et al., and there is no real leader whom they would rally around that has been vocal enough against the tax hikes in the Senate. In the end though, barring a knock down drag out fight on the Senate floor (and I don't see that happening in the Virginia Senate ever), this is going to be a pretty even handed discussion of how the House and Senate feel Virginia needs to be run. Saturday, January 10, 2004Brewery Recreates Revolutionary Beer Now I knew that the good folks at Mount Vernon were enjoying the Washington recipe for whiskey, but I didn't know about this lovely invention: George Washington Beer! Friday, January 09, 2004Senator Allen's New Website Something to bookmark for reference. Looks pretty darn good to me. Bush to Announce Missions to Mars, Moon Well, here you have it. Always said the president was "lun-y". HA HA!!! GET IT?! LUN-Y? LUN-A? HA HA HA!!! AHA! er. . . President Bush will announce plans next week to send Americans to Mars and establish a permanent human presence on the moon, senior administration officials said Thursday night.Now something in me says this is really cool, and another part says this is ass backwards. Thinking historically, I suppose an argument could be made that Columbus sailed to the New World with the financial backing of the Spanish government, and that Portugal did the same. . . but in the end it was financial investment and companies that conquered and settled the New World. Private investment, not government involvement. Plus there's the fact that we are spending bundles of money right now keeping the space station afloat. How are we going to afford a permanent station on the Moon and a manned trip to Mars? I dunno. . . maybe the trick is to find mineral deposits, oil, or precious metals on either celestial body to get entrepreneurs up there. Maybe we don't want that at all. Mixed feelings on this one. . . Thursday, January 08, 2004Let it Snow! Well, not really. . . the National Weather Service is calling for an inch or less. But it will be fun to watch! Wednesday, January 07, 2004The OIC Summit: Malaysian PM Mahathir's Speech on 16 October You may remember briefly a report in the press about a certain Islamic leader's speech concerning how the Jews control the world, etc. That speech was given by the outgoing Malaysian Prime Minster at last year's October summit in Qatar. Of course, that brief comment overshadowed a larger speech that should make every Western policy analyst take notice: Today we, the whole Muslim ummah are treated with contempt and dishonour. Our religion is denigrated. Our holy places desecrated. Our countries are occupied. Our people starved and killed.Print this off and read it in its entirety. You will not only be impressed, but once you consider that the West has no similar unifying pole such as Islam, it should make you think about where we are as a culture and the importance of culture - because it will ultimately play out within our lifetime. More on Coach Gibbs Returning to the Redskins! This has to be the best sports article I have read - ever. What, this isn't big news to you? The Redskins rehiring Joe Gibbs? If it's not, the hell with you then. This would be the equivalent of Casey Stengel returning to mange the Yankees. Or Vince Lombardi returning to coach the Packers. This is a Hall of Fame coach coming back to where he belongs. This isn't Parcells selling his soul to Jerry Jones. Joe Gibbs turned down NFL jobs for 11 years, and I'll tell you why -- because he's a better man than Parcells. You think Gibbs would've come out of retirement to coach the Panthers? Or the Falcons? Or the, gulp, Cowboys? Never. Never in a million years. He's no Parcells. He's no sell-out. He was a Redskin in '81, and it looks like he's a Redskin again. And I promise you'll never hear another peep out of Dan Snyder.All that we need now is a few pre-season games at RFK! COACH GIBBS RETURNS TO THE REDSKINS! Hail to the Redskins, baby! Welcome back Coach. . . as much trash as I have talked about Danny Snyder, he pulled of the impossible. Now all that remains is for Gibbs to be successful despite the nonsense going on at Redskins Park. This was the one part of the modern-day Redskins' legacy that Snyder had yet to touch. . . let's hope that the glory days of the '80s are on their way back to Washington. 'Dirty Bomb' Was Major New Year's Worry It seems as if a dirty bomb was the major concern of Homeland Security officials during New Years: The call-up of Department of Energy radiation experts to Washington, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Baltimore was the first since the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was conducted in secrecy, in contrast with the very public cancellation of 15 commercial flights into this country from France, Britain and Mexico -- the other major counterterrorism response of the holiday season. Tuesday, January 06, 2004French Navy Larger Than the British Navy: First Time in 300 Years Not that Lord Nelson is doing RPMs in his grave. . . the British navy can still project the largest amount of force in the world next to the United States Navy. But still, giving the French anything to crow about is still a bad thing in my book. Monday, January 05, 2004First of Catholic scandal reports due this week Drumroll please. . . should be a great week for the anti-Catholic crowd. . . Conservatives Simmering over the Bush Budget And for good reason. There is nothing conservative about these numbers: Conservatives wait warily as President Bush makes final decisions about his election-year budget, three years into an administration on whose watch spending has mushroomed by 23.7%, the fastest pace in a decade.I smell a primary challenge coming on. . it would be a great way for future Republicans to start paying attention to conservative issues. . . or pave the way for someone much worse. War Crimes Yesterday, Foreign Policy Today? Matt Drudge has been heaping scorn upon MoveOn.org's newest contest to develop a 30-second ad criticizing President Bush. This one is a real treat. It's a comparison of Bush and Hitler, and it's not the only one out there. I'm sorry, but if this ad had an ounce of integrity, it wouldn't be guilty of the fearmongering that it accuses President Bush of. Disgusting. . . and it shows the length (and depth or lack thereof) of the anti-Bush left. Sunday, January 04, 2004Culture Wars Go International Fr. Richard John Neuhaus of First Things has come out with a wonderful review on Robert Bork's new book entitled Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges in this months issue: Countries belonging to the United Nations, many of them antidemocratic and downright tyrannical, cooperate with Western nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in creating international laws in order to impose upon their countries measures that they know they could not win by democratic means. “International law,” says Bork, “is not law but politics. For that reason, it is dangerous to give the name ‘law,’ which summons up respect, to political struggles that are essentially lawless.” The international New Class is often deeply anti-American and works hand-in-glove with American NGOs that are hostile to the morality of their own society. The result is that “international law becomes one more weapon in the domestic culture war.” The U.S. Supreme Court has also taken to citing the authority of foreign courts. In one risible instance, in a case having to do with delays in execution, Justice Stephen G. Breyer invoked decisions by the Privy Council of Jamaica and the supreme courts of India and Zimbabwe. Mars Rover Touches Down; Sends Back Strong Signal, Pictures In the search to discover whether or not there is or was life on Mars, NASA's JPL landed Spirit last night and successfully received a signal from the rover. "We could get part of a panorama this evening. There's nothing better," said JPL's Matthew Golombek, who helped pick the rover's landing site on Mars. Saturday, January 03, 2004Japanese Drum Machine? This is so weird that you must check it out. I honestly don't know what to make of it, but it is worth checking out if only to experience it. . . if you have broadband that is. Otherwise, rest assured that you have just saved at least three or four minutes of your life to do something worthwhile. Maybe not as cool, but definitely more worthwhile. . . Thursday, January 01, 2004Happy New Years I went to 12:30 Mass here in town as it is a holy day of obligation for us Catholics, and talked with Father Rooney for a minute or two. "So how did your New Year's go?" I asked. Father shrugged and smiled. "Just another day."
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JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General?1) John Brownlee2) Ken Cuccinelli AboutShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia.ContactThe Jeffersoniad
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