Virginia | I'm Surrounded By Idiots

Real efficient and effective use of state resources, guys…

Culpeper town police thought they knew who was responsible for an outbreak of automobile vandalism last summer, but they just didn’t have quite enough evidence to take the case to court.

Now, thanks to DNA evidence, they have charged a 17-year-old boy with destruction of property in the incidents.

Now, the last I checked, it cost quite a bit to do a DNA test.

Not only that, but how many cases of a more serious nature (e.g., murder, rape) had to wait in line while the forensic lab was doing DNA testing for a vandalism case? In 2004, for example, the Commonwealth had a six-month backlog for DNA testing. In 2007, it was estimated by the Director of the state crime lab that “the state has a backlog of 1,100 to 1,200 DNA cases.”

Despite what you see on those stupid television shows such as CSI: [Whatever] or Law & Order: [Whatever] it can take weeks for a DNA test to be completed.

And given the fact that it appears that at least three tests had to be done (the story notes “blood and other DNA evidence [was] found at the scenes” and you also have the reference sample from the suspect), how many hours were consumed for this case and what was the total cost?

What a bunch of classy people: Liberal Virginia bloggers attempt a denial of service (DOS) attack against a [supposed] McCain push polling phone number.

Raising Kaine has officially jumped the shark.

I wonder what their response would be if I launched a DOS on their web server.

Will the other libs/progressives repudiate this illegal act by the supposed champions of freedom of speech?

One or two might (say someone like Vivian Paige). But the majority will ignore them, defend them, or will join in and help their fellow fascists liberals.

See, this is what happens when the pro-choice, freedom loving liberals encounter someone they disagree with. They do whatever they can to shut the person up.

The pointy-haired boss of Virginia [Tim Kaine] redraws state boundaries.

Our esteemed Governor seems to think that the Commonwealth of Virginia borders Delaware:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV-mB3Wjuqs

Did we take over the People’s Republic of Maryland when I wasn’t looking?

H/t: Black Velvet Bruce Li, Virginia Virtucon, Hot Air

A double secret suicide watch for the Virginia Democratic net nut roots?

MSNBC is saying that the pointy-haired boss of Virginia (Tim Kaine) has been told he will not be Obama’s veep choice.

Of course, depending on which blog you read on the Democratic side, (e.g., Not Larry Sabato) they might be cheering this announcement.

Maybe one of Tim Kaine’s grandparents is Jewish and we all know how the Democrats feel about that.

H/t: Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge

Virginia Democratic net nut roots on suicide watch.

Fox News:

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has put the brakes on ads that were running in seven states carried by the GOP in the 2004 presidential election, FOX News has learned.

Of the seven states — including Alaska, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota — Florida and Virginia are considered key battlegrounds this year. Obama’s decision to stop advertising in those states is raising eyebrows.

[…]

When Obama’s campaign took over the Democratic Party earlier this year, it embraced Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, which is aimed at courting Democrats nationwide. The strategy has generated controversy, though, because many Democrats say it wastes money in states where they have no chance of winning.

H/t: Ace of Spades HQ

Big Brother called; he wants to talk to you.

WTOP:

Homeland security officials in the Washington area plan to dramatically expand the use of automated license plate readers to prevent possible terrorist attacks.

Officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia have agreed to install 200 license plate readers on police vehicles, at airports and along roads. The plan announced Friday will be funded by federal homeland security grants for the area.

Britain used the readers in the 1990s to deter Irish Republican Army attacks. But in the United States, the devices have mostly been used to regulate parking or catch car thieves.

The readers will scan every license plate that passes by and will run the numbers through federal criminal and terrorist databases.

New York officials recently said they plan to scan license plates of all cars entering Manhattan.

Privacy experts say it’s a vast expansion of the use of technology for security.

Well, duh.

I’m sure there’s a way to harness the power created by George Orwell rolling over in his grave.

H/t: Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge

And for those wondering why I refer to Matt Drudge as Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge, it’s because Ted Baxter — I mean Bill O’Reilly — referred to Drudge as such after Drudge posted O’Reilly’s less than stellar book sales figures.

Roll the transcript!:

[BILL] O’REILLY: Now I want to make it quite clear to everybody that the right-wing Web sites do this, too. I mean you can’t believe a word Matt Drudge says, for example. They’ll just spin it and twist it and take it out of proportion every which way.

[…]

O’REILLY: Well, who knows this? Who said this? Now you’ve got the Matt Drudges of the world and these other people, Michael Moore and all of these crazies, all right, no responsibility, and legitimate journalists — I see stuff in “The New York Times” taken off Web sites all the time by their columnists and reporters. They just throw it in there. And then…

[…]

O’REILLY: And I mean that is — that is a threat to democracy, I think.

Yes, damn those people. They have some nerve expressing their opinions. Only I, your pretentious, self-absorbed Overlord at Fox News should be able to do that!

Why do people still watch that dork?

The Richmond Times-Dispatch can’t see the forest for the trees.

Or they’re just incompetent; take your pick.

Consider a recent “news story” from Jeff Schapiro about the recent General Assembly special session. First the intro:

Shame on our short-timer governor, Tim Kaine. How dare he berate the legislature for doing nothing on transportation.

On the contrary, the General Assembly was enormously productive during the six days in June and July it was, ahem, at work.

Belying the perception they are deadbeats, Virginia’s worthies actually passed nearly 120 measures. Some were important — to someone.

Yes, yes, no one cares, details please:

One was essential to making this a truly special session. It allowed legislators to pay themselves about $120,000 — for again ducking a $1 billion problem.

Wow, $120,000, which is only 0.00034% of the state’s budget, and that’s calculating the percentage using FY07 expenditures.

And considering there were 140 legislators working for 48 hours (six days), that’s only $17.86 a hour. (A lot of legislators are lawyers, for example, and would be making a heck a lot more at their office, for comparison.)

Right now, you have a state that spends $35,442,393,597.43 a year in their budget (again, FY07 numbers [Auditor of Public Accounts]). At what point, is enough enough?

From FY03 to FY07, the biggest growth, by percentage, in the Commonwealth’s budget has been in Capital Outlay Projects (126.19% increase), Education (45.57% increase), and General Government (35.78% increase) (Auditor of Public Accounts, different link). Who thinks we can find some cuts in there?

Meanwhile, transportation funding has only increased by 6.69% in the same time period (Ibid).

In the same time period that transportation only increased by 6.69%, the total statewide spending increased by 26.84%.

Back to RT-D:

The House version was carried by Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, an inartful dodger carrying water for the big companies angling to run, for fun and profit, vast hunks of the Hampton Roads road-tunnel-and-bridge network.

As Christina Nuckols, of The Virginian-Pilot, reminded her readers: Those firms are represented by lobbyists who sit in the privy council of Speaker Bill Howell, ensuring Republicans receive only objective, dispassionate advice on what could prove a giant government giveaway.

Oh my God! Those evil “big companies”!

They have some nerve employing people and giving them a paycheck for work! Those saps that work for those evil “big companies” should just quit, get on welfare, and live off the government.

What’s even worst is that the companies hire people (lobbyists) to represent themselves to the legislature. Those bastards should be executed for using their First Amendment rights.

Remember that hating corporations is #82 on Stuff White People Like.

The legislative calendar included some somber business: bills by Dels. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, and Albert Pollard, D-Lancaster, naming bridges over Interstate 95 in Caroline County for troopers Robert Tinsley Lohr and Robin Lee Farmer, both killed in the line of duty in 1978 and 1981, respectively.

Is that a complaint or what? The renaming of the bridges was requested by the Caroline County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Tony Lippa. The idea was originally proposed by a private citizen of Caroline County, Roger Cavendish.

Delegates Peace and Pollard, along with Delegate Orrock and Senator McDougle, also introduced a resolution celebrating the life of Mildred Jeter Loving.

Are you going to bitch about that too, Jeff?

How about Bill Howell, et al., introducing a resolution celebrating the life of Fredericksburg Police Officer Todd Bahr, who was killed in the line of duty on June 6th?

Going to bitch about that one too, Jeff?

And there were tributes to war dead. Del. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, sponsored separate memorial resolutions for Army Lt. Col. Jim Walton, who fell in Afghanistan last month in an attack on his convoy.

Again, is this a complaint?

Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom would qualify for special license plates, under a measure by Del. Bill Janis of Henrico. The VMI guy and former naval officer is on the partisan special-ops squad of the House GOP Caucus.

Does that mean the license plate shouldn’t be allowed?

A prospective governor was honored by another. Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath, running for the 2009 Democratic nomination, introduced a resolution “celebrating the life” of the late Bill Battle. Battle, defeated for the 1969 Democratic nomination, lived in Charlottesville, on the eastern edge of Deeds’ sprawling, sylvan district.

The problem?

The business of the just-adjourned session covers four pages on the General Assembly’s Web site. Some of it is heady stuff — not.

[Blah, blah, blah, blah…]

All are appointments with a $200-per-meeting paycheck. Unlike the other day, maybe the senators will actually earn it.

Okay, I guess that all the preceding was a complaint.

Does anyone notice that this reporter has time to go through and check out every little resolution that the General Assembly dealt with and proceeded to complain about the unimportance of them?

Did he write a story about the transportation bills that were dealt with? No, of course not; those aren’t important.

Is this not the very height of irony?

First, these resolutions probably take about a minute of time in each house of the General Assembly.

Second, while Jeff was tracking down every resolution the General Assembly dealt with, he missed the following:

The Republicans went from wanting (unconstitutional) regional taxes imposed on Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to offering a no-tax solution: The Republican solution include appropriating money to NoVA and Hampton Roads from airport fees and taxes and port revenues to pay for the transports needs that are partly caused by the airports and port!

Where’s the story about Jeff Frederick’s bill that would give money to localities to pay for their own roads instead of giving money to the monstrosity that is VDOT (HB6025)? That bill didn’t even make it out of the House.

How about the bill that would implement the 2002 Governor’s Commission on Efficiency and Effectiveness that died in the House Rules Committee (HJ6061)?

How about the the great idea for the state to stop paying for roads in subdivisions (HB6041)? Why should I be paying for someone else’s subdivision roads that I and 99.99% of the state will never see or use?

How about the bill that would required an independent audit of the monstrosity-known-as-VDOT (HB6023)? The Senate refused to act on that bill.

RT-D had time to nitpick about every little resolution that was passed by the General Assembly, but couldn’t do their jobs and actually tell the people what did occur during the session.

While I was picking on the Richmond Times-Dispatch, D. J. McGuire was skewering The Free Lance–Black White Hole.

He also took care of another act of outright incompetence by RT-D here.

Keeping it classy: Protesters interrupt Bush’s speech to soon-to-be naturalized citizens nine times.

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

President Bush invoked the memory of Thomas Jefferson Friday in welcoming new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony at Monticello, saying “I’ll be proud to call you a fellow American.”

On his final Fourth of July as president, Bush told an audience at the home of the Declaration of Independence’s author that he was honored to be present for the naturalization.

Anti-war protesters shouted out calls for Bush’s impeachment on nine occasions during Bush’s brief remarks, and the president responded by saying he agrees that “we believe in free speech in the United States of America.”

For those to dense to know it, that means “shut the **** up and sit the **** down”.

Bush mentioned neither the war in Iraq nor the battle against terrorism in his speech, other than to say that “we pay tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform.”

For the people assembled with him at the naturalization ceremony, he said: “When you raise your hands and take your oath, you will complete an incredible journey. … From this day forward, the history of the United States will be part of your heritage.”

“Throughout our history,” he said, “the words of the declaration have inspired immigrants around the world to set sail to our shores. … They made America a melting pot of culture from all across the world. They made diversity a great strength of our democracy.”

“Those of you taking the oath of citizenship at this ceremony hail from 30 different nations,” Bush noted. ” … You all have one thing in common _ and that is a shared love of freedom … and this is the love that makes us all Americans.”

Said Bush: “This is a fitting place to celebrate our nation’s independence. Thomas Jefferson once said he’d rather celebrate the Fourth of July than his own birthday. To me, it’s pretty simple _ the Fourth of July weekend is my birthday weekend.”

What hypocrisy: Wittman condemns Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “rejecting” earmark moratorium while requesting $132,500,000.00 in earmarks.

File under: Chutzpah.

He also has yet to publish his requested earmarks on his website as he has promised.

First, one of Wittman’s press releases dated February 7, 2008:

Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA) released the following statement after today’s procedural motion to force a vote on an immediate earmark moratorium.

“I am disappointed that Speaker Pelosi has rejected a Republican invitation to place an immediate moratorium on all government funded earmarks. I believe this is an issue that we must find common ground on, and that we must do so immediately. Unfortunately, congressional Democrats do not feel the same way.

Wittman’s views on “Wasteful Spending”:

I am committed to fight against wasteful spending and expose the fraud and abuse in Washington. We need to get back to the conservative principles of controlling spending, particularly when it comes to federal earmarks, commonly referred to as “pork barrel” projects.

From The Daily Press via the “VA GOP Network”:

About 65 people crammed into 40 seats and stood along the walls of a meeting room at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Newport News for about two hours. What they heard was U.S. Representative Rob Wittman and state Delegates G. Glenn Oder and Brenda Pogge discuss their legislative agendas while railing against excessive governmental spending and, frequently, the Democratic Party.

[…]

Wittman spoke of reforming the tax code and legislative earmarking, extending tax cuts and curtailing entitlement programs — particularly Medicaid, Medicare and defense spending, that he said would in five years account for 96 percent of federal government discretionary spending.

“If we don’t get our arms around these particular issues we’re going to have trouble, Wittman said. “We have to find ways of doing things without spending ourselves into oblivion.”

Uh…he wants to cut defense spending in the middle of two wars? Aren’t there five military bases in his Congressional District, as he is so happy to point out?

Comforting…

And from a document distributed by the Stafford County Republican Committee (.DOC file) touting Wittman’s “conservative record” (snort):

Rep. Wittman has joined the members of the Republican Conference to demand reform of earmarks by calling for a Joint Select Committee on Earmark Reform and an earmark moratorium until additional guidelines are recommended.

And now, from the Media General News Service:

As his colleagues debated a moratorium on congressionally-directed budget earmarks this month, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., requested $132.5 million for local projects.

[…]

In his first budget cycle, Wittman sought funding for 52 projects. The largest is $17.5 million to replace a 40-year-old missile support facility at the Navy’s Dahlgren Division in King George Co.

Uh…didn’t he just say he was going to cut defense spending?

Did he vote for it before he voted against it?

[…]

Side-stepping the intra-party debate over new House earmark policies, Wittman said he made sure his requests were supported by local agencies, contained non-federal funding, and pledged to publish his requests on his Web site.

“What we try to do is step out in front and develop our own policy and be sure we are transparent,” Wittman said.

Funny, he hasn’t posted the information on either of his websites yet (Google search of his official website and his campaign website). I guess the media gets a list of his earmarks, but us lowly serfs in the First Congressional District don’t. And how exactly would a federal earmark not contain federal funding? Continued:

But critics said it would have been better for him to not participate in the earmark process at all.
“He’s not starting off very well,” said Paige. “If he’s already climbing on the runaway train that is the earmark culture in Congress, he’s going in the wrong direction.”

Critics also say the earmark process increases spending, because lawmakers support each other’s pet projects.

Wittman said he will suggest “spending reductions in other places to offset spending for (his) earmarks.”

Um, yeah, sure, I believe that. Apparently he’s going to reduce spending by increasing spending to pay for people’s health insurance in the tune of $5,000,000 in FY09 and 10, increasing to $10,000,000 in FY11 and 12, and hitting $20,000,000 in FY13 as a cosponsor of H.R.5405. (I must have missed the part of the United States Constitution that includes the provision to pay for people’s health insurance.) Continued:

[Eric] Cantor [R-7th CD] made no appropriation requests for the second year in a row and has called on lawmakers to follow suit while Congress considers reforms to the earmark process.

In closing, to quote P. J. O’Rourke: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”

And: “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.“

Follow-up: Representative Rob Wittman wants to ban the sale of Playboy and Penthouse at military PX’s.

Wittman is a cosponsor. (For details on the original story, click here.)

Apparently, Wittman (who has no military experience whatsoever) believes that men (and women) that have volunteered to serve in the military are incapable of deciding what they want to read.

They can apparently volunteer to serve in the greatest armed forces in the world with the possibility that they will make the ultimate sacrifice, but are unable to decide what is appropriate for themselves to read.

Men (and women) who serve in combat zones and see death on a routine basis will apparently have their precious minds, their virgin eyes and ears, warped by the likes of Penthouse and Playboy.

Does Wittman think that because some soldiers, sailors, airmen, or Marines see the likes of Penthouse and Playboy that, to quote the bill’s sponsor, Paul Broun of Georgia, it will “escalat[e] the number of violent, sexual crimes, feeding a base addiction, eroding the family as the primary building block of society, and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad”? (see also: Straw man)

Is our military that out of control?

And as Wittman is so eager to point out, twenty percent (20%) of his district’s residents “are military or retired military personnel”, so how many of them support this stupidity?

Do the Marines at MCB (Marine Corp Base) Quantico think it’s a Congressional prerogative to control what they read? What about the soldiers (et al.) at Fort A.P. Hill? The sailors at NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) Dahlgren? What about the airmen at Langley AFB (Air Force Base) which is right outside his district (and I’m sure some of the base personnel live inside his district)?

And how comforting that Wittman will be on the subcommittee that does the first hearing on the bill (that would be the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Readiness).

Welcome to the Republican Nanny State.

FYI: Randy Forbes (R) of Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District and Virgil Goode (R) of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District are also cosponsors of this piece of stupidity legislation.