Rick Sincere News and Thoughts

Asking for Whom the Bell Tolls?

2009-11-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

Forget about the sacking of its top three business-side executives, or the "resignations" of executive editor John Solomon and editorial page editor Richard Miniter.

If you want the strongest sign that The Washington Times is teetering on the edge of self-destruction, consider this: The paper has dropped its comics page, which has not appeared in the past two days.

When a whole section of a newspaper disappears without comment, you know that trouble is at hand.

At least Mallard Fillmore -- which, oddly enough, started at the Daily Progress in liberal Charlottesville -- remains on page A2 of the Times.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Candidates Speak at Blogs United Conference

2009-11-24T19:49:00.001-05:00

Blogs United, a bipartisan group of Virginia political bloggers from throughout the Commonwealth, gathered in Newport News last weekend to talk about blogging ethics, legal matters, new media, technology, and politics. About three dozen individuals participated.

The speakers included U.S. Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA1) and eight candidates for Congress. I'll be posting video of Congressman Wittman's speech later, but I have already uploaded the eight people who seek to join -- or unseat -- him to YouTube.

The eight come from four different districts -- the First, Second, Third, and Fifth. Here they are, in district numerical order.

From the First District came Democratic candidates Scott Robinson and Krystal Ball, who are seeking their party's nomination to challenge Congressman Wittman in the 2010 general election:

From the Second District, there are four potential Republican challengers to incumbent Representative Glenn Nye: Scott Rigell, Ben Loyola, Kenny Golden, and Scott Taylor:

In the Third District, Coby Dillard is seeking the Republican nomination to face incumbent Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA):

Finally, in the Fifth District, Michael McPadden is one of six or seven potential Republican challengers seeking to face off against incumbent Representative Tom Perriello (R-VA5):

For more information about Blogs United, check out its web site (a blog, naturally) and its Facebook group.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Books and Authors on Tape

2009-11-18T01:20:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday evening, I -- along with hordes of other readers and booklovers -- attended the National Press Club’s 32nd Annual Book Fair and Authors’ Night in Washington. I ended up spending almost $200 on books (some for me, some for gifts) but, even better, I was able to speak with some of the authors and get a few of them on videotape.

I told former National Press Club president Frank Aukofer that I had already read his book, Never a Slow Day: Adventures of a 20th Century Newspaper Reporter, and that I enjoyed it enough that I would like to purchase a new copy with his autograph in it.

In the course of our conversation, I noted our shared history of growing up in Milwaukee. Aukofer is year younger than my father would be, and the two of them lived within about 10 blocks of each other as children, though they attended different schools and had very different careers.

Like me, Aukofer became a transplant from Milwaukee to Washington, where he eventually became bureau chief of The Milwaukee Journal (before it merged with the Milwaukee Sentinel to create a single morning daily and end one of the last afternoon dailies in the country). I mentioned that I live in Charlottesville, and he said his "little sister" lives there, too. It was not until that "V8 moment" that I put two and two together and realized that he meant Claire Aukofer, the theatre critic for the Daily Progress. (I should have figured it out a long time ago, having known that Claire Aukofer attended UWM [University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee], but I simply never made the connection.)

In any case, here is what Frank Aukofer has to say about his memoir:

Speaking about shared histories, I surprised linguist Deborah Tannen when I told her I had read her first book. She thought I meant, That's Not What I Meant!, when in fact I was referring to the book based on her dissertation, Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk among Friends. She seemed shocked when I mentioned that I had seen a play, loosely based on that latter book, when it was performed at the Kennedy Center's College Theatre Festival almost 25 years ago.

Tannen was at the National Press Club with her latest book, You Were Always Mom's Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives. In this brief video, she lists her books and the trajectory they took from topic to topic.

One of the most powerful people on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Henry Waxman is author (with Joshua Green) of The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works. Here he gives a brief description of the book, and comments on my left-field question about how today's Congress compares to that of the time of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Writing about the third branch of government, legal correspondent Joan Biskupic took some time to chat about her new book, American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Of course, I had to talk to somebody about a representative of the second branch, so I found two.

First, historian Harlow Giles Unger has written a book about our neighbor from Ash Lawn-Highland called The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness. Here's what he said:

At the other end of the timeline, veteran journalist Haynes Johnson has written a new book (with Dan Balz) about the election of Barack Obama. It's called The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election and this is what Johnson had to say about it:

Going back much further in history, James Reston, Jr., has written four books -- he calls them a "quartet," I'd call them a tetralogy -- about the clash between Islam and Christianity in the Middle Ages. His latest book, Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536, was on display.

I asked Reston to describe the sequence of the four books.

After I turned off the camera -- and I am sorry I did that! -- we chatted briefly about what Reston thought about Frost/Nixon, the Peter Morgan play and Ron Howard movie adaptation in which he is a major character. (In real life, James Reston, Jr., was a researcher for David Frost in the months leading up to the famous series of interviews with disgraced President Richard Nixon.) He said both the play and the movie were great experiences for him.

When Richard Nixon resigned, he probably could have used advice about finding a new job. Perhaps he would have found it in a new book by Brad and Debra Shepp called How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Other Social Networks. Here's what the pair of authors had to say:

Finally, in what is probably the shortest clip I got over the course of the evening -- but no less entertaining for its terse nature -- pundit Ann Coulter offered a few words (including the words "George Soros") to persuade people to read her book, Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America. Coulter was signing hardbacks as well as the paperback edition of Guilty, which just came out on November 10.

See her comments for yourself:

There were many other authors at the National Press Club last night, and I wish I could have met and interviewed them all, but I feel satisfied in what I was able to obtain over the course of about 90 minutes of wandering through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Sagal and Ferguson on the 'Real America'

2009-11-14T01:56:00.000-05:00

Peter Sagal, host of NPR's weekly quiz show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, was a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS-TV on its Friday the 13th episode. During the interview, both Ferguson and Sagal had good things to say about my hometown, Milwaukee, and about the Midwest in general. The sequence began with Ferguson asking Sagal about the home base for Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, the City That Ferris Bueller Made Famous:

FERGUSON: But you like Chicago?

SAGAL: Oh, I love Chicago. Illinois is fabulous.

FERGUSON: Do you ever go north?

SAGAL: (startled) To Wisconsin?....

FERGUSON: Do you ever go up to Milwaukee, for example?

SAGAL: Milwaukee's a great town.

FERGUSON: I like that city.

SAGAL: Milwaukee's a great city, very good for sausages and beer,

(audience titters)

SAGAL: It's true.

(audience titters)

SAGAL: They'll laugh at anything.

FERGUSON: That's why they're here; that's what they're paid for....

SAGAL: Milwaukee's a great town. As you know (leaning in), because you're an American, that the Midwest is America. This is where America is -- processed meats, tasteless beer. This is where it comes from.

FERGUSON: I don't know. There are other parts of America, like New Orleans is America, the Pacific Northwest. Where's not America, clearly, is Los Angeles.

At the end of the interview, Ferguson and Sagal agreed to "trade places, like The Prince and the Pauper," with each hosting the other's show.

While the suggestion may have been made in jest, as it was sealed with a handshake, I would not be surprised to see, sometime in the not-too-distant future, Peter Sagal sitting behind Craig Ferguson's desk one night and Ferguson standing at Sagal's podium at the Chase Auditorium, posing questions to panelists like Mo Rocca, Amy Dickinson, and Paula Poundstone.

Will NPR and CBS accede to the experiment? Stay tuned.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Video of 'Locked Out' Panel Discussion

2009-11-09T22:46:00.002-05:00

A powerful documentary film, a joint project of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and the Community Idea Stations (public television in Virginia), had its theatrical premiere at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville on Saturday, November 7.

Locked Out: The Fall of Massive Resistance tells the story of a shameful chapter in Virginia history, when the Byrd Machine, Governor Lindsay Almond, the General Assembly, and local officials colluded to close down the government schools rather than permit them to be desegregated. Instead of ending Virginia's tradition of segregating schools according to racial classifications -- one school here for Negroes, another school there for whites -- the state's elites decided to close the schools altogether and prohibited the election of school boards by the people.

The film tells the story in the words of the African-American students who lived through the process of desegregation in several Virginia localities: Arlington, Prince Edward, and Warren counties and the cities of Charlottesville and Norfolk.

The one-hour documentary, which is studded with archival film and video footage as well as photographs and recently completed interviews with participants, marks the 50th anniversary of Massive Resistance, which began -- and, in most places, ended -- in 1959. (The holdout was Prince Edward County, where schools remained closed until 1964, resulting in 10- and 11-year-old pupils sharing classrooms with 5- and 6-year-old first-graders.)

After a screening for a sold-out audience in the Culbreth Theatre on the grounds of the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato of the Center for Politics moderated a panel discussion that included the documentary's director, Mason Mills, as well as former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, who had become the nation's first elected African-American governor precisely 20 years before, on November 7, 1989.

Other panelists were students who suffered under Massive Resistance and whose interviews are included in Locked Out: Rita Moseley of Prince Edward, Donald Martin of Charlottesville, Michael Jones of Arlington, Delores Brown of Norfolk, and Faye Coleman Hoes of Warren County.

Before the film was projected, Larry Sabato introduced it.

After the film was screened, Sabato assembled the panelists and posed a few questions. Later, he opened up the floor to questions and comments from the audience.

Panel Part I:

Panel Part II:

Panel Part III:

Panel Part IV:

Panel Part V (Conclusion):

In that last segment, Sabato urges the audience to visit the Center for Politics web site and click on its Youth Leadership Initiative, to help the Center raise funds to distribute copies of Locked Out via DVD to schools around the country.

Locked Out: The Fall of Massive Resistance will have its broadcast premiere on November 16 at 9:00 p.m. on WCVE and WVPT, and it will become available nationwide on other PBS stations over the next few months.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Photos from the 2009 Virginia Film Festival

2009-11-09T18:40:00.002-05:00

I will be posting video a bit later. To whet your appetites, here are some photos that I shot during the 2009 Virginia Film Festival at various locations around Charlottesville.

To my disappointment, I failed to encounter cult moviemaker John Waters, who was scheduled to make three public appearances: a lecture at the UVA Arts Assembly and comments at screenings of his films Hairspray and Pink Flamingos. He didn't show up for Hairspray (which is the screening I chose to attend), causing grumbling among those who paid $15 per ticket when they could have rented the DVD for $3, but did appear at Pink Flamingos later Friday night.

Celebrities I did catch up with included Matthew Broderick, who discussed two of his films at the Culbreth and surprised fans at the UVA Amphitheatre after a screening for students of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, directors Norman Jewison and Hugh Wilson, and former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder.

Sparsely attended was a rare gem of a film, Gabriel Over the White House, which is said to have been a favorite of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I would call it "FDR's fascist fantasy film," because it is about a U.S. President (played by Walter Huston) who assumes dictatorial powers in order to end the Great Depression and ends up bullying Congress and threatening foreign nations in order to get them to sign a treaty he favors. Huston's Jud Hammond resembles Hitler more than Roosevelt, and the film's release date (1933) is a sad reminder that what happened that decade in Germany could also have happened here.

After being out of circulation for several decades, Gabriel Over the White House is now available on DVD. No matter what, we must make sure that this movie does not get shown to the current occupants of the White House. (Oddly, one of the presidential aides in the film bears an eerie resemblance to Rahm Emanuel.) We don't want to give them any more sinister ideas than they already have.

The Regal Cinemas in downtown Charlottesville hosted the "fesital" along with other venues

This year's festival had an expanded "family day" schedule at the Paramount downtown

Director Norman Jewison spoke at two film festival events; here he is discussing The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming

TV and Internet horror-show host Count Gore De Vol attended a screening of the new documentary, Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion, at Vinegar Hill

On the 20th anniversary of his election as Governor of Virginia, L. Douglas Wilder met Virginia Film Festival director Jody Kielbasa, prior to speaking on a panel about the new public television documentary, Locked Out: The Fall of Massive Resistance

Some artifacts of Massive Resistance

Screenwriter Hugh Wilson, creator of WKRP in Cincinnati, introduced his 1984 film, Police Academy, in Newcomb Hall

Matthew Broderick, in the lobby of the Culbreth Theatre, after a screening of Election

Matthew Broderick with Josh Goldin, director of the new film, Wonderful World, and producer Glenn Williamson

For a good summary of the festival's four days, see Lisa Provence's report in The Hook.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Remember, Remember

2009-11-05T00:14:00.002-05:00

On this Guy Fawkes' Day, it is appropriate to celebrate an internationally-known political blogger who has assumed the persona of Guy -- or "Guido" -- Fawkes in his attempts to engage, stimulate, influence, and taunt conservative debate and discussion in the United Kingdom.

(For those unfamiliar with Guy Fawkes' Day, it marks the so-called "Gunpowder Plot" by Catholics who wanted to overthrow the stifling Protestant regime of King James I. There has been debate whether Fawkes was a ringleader, a patriot, or just a scapegoat, but his name is celebrated on the 5th of November each year with fireworks, bonfires, and libation. In recent years, the day has acquired some of the style and and customs of American Hallowe'en. The character of Guy Fawkes was also celebrated in the libertarian-themed film, V for Vendetta.)

Last week, as part of its series of reports marking the 4oth anniversary of the Internet, NPR's "All Things Considered" featured the creator of Order-Order.com, Paul Stains, a libertarian/conservative activist who has done for the British blogosphere what Glenn Reynolds or Michelle Malkin have done on this side of the pond. (I mention those names by way of example; there are many others I could have chosen.)

Correspondent Vickie Barker began her report by noting that, in London,

there are arguably only two types of politicians: those who admit they follow the Guy Fawkes blog and those who do, but won't admit it.

She continues:

Five years ago, four centuries after his namesake, Paul Stains created his online alter ego. The nearly bankrupt businessman suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. A libertarian who once organized acid house parties in his student days, he described himself as Thatcher on drugs, Stains consciously set out to become Britain's Matt Drudge.

Like Drudge, he was initially dismissed as a know-nothing outsider, a purveyor of unfounded rumor and gossip. Like Drudge, he's been able to tap into a rich vein of disgruntlement among underpaid, overworked underlings....

He thinks the blog's chatty style - full of accounts of bumping into people in pubs, of getting drunk, of being thrown out of meetings - makes him more approachable to his mostly young sources. Guy Fawkes now registers 100,000 hits a week. It's consistently rated Britain's most influential political blog.

Stains works out of a cramped office in Clerkenwell, a Dickensian corner of East London. He readily acknowledges that he, a non-journalist with a somewhat checkered professional past, could never have reached the heights he has without the Internet. He calls that his strength.

Were it not for NPR, part of the mainstream media, I never would have learned about Order-Order.com, definitely part of the alternative media.

Who can deny that the two are linked in a symbiotic relationship, in which both bloggers and the MSM benefit?

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Soylent Green Is Fido?

2009-11-04T23:37:00.004-05:00

Thursday morning's Washington Times has an editorial about some New Zealand scientists who recommend something straight from the annals of science fiction (or SyFy):

Want to save the planet? Kill your pets. Or better yet, eat them. This radical new suggestion comes from New Zealand professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialize in sustainable living. Their research has found that pets create tremendous strains on the environment and that a truly green world would have no place for these carbon-emitting parasites.

The Vale duo found that a medium-size dog has a carbon "pawprint" equal to that of about two Toyota Land Cruisers. A cat has almost the same environmental impact as a Volkswagen Golf, and two hamsters somehow equal a plasma TV.

Could two hamsters be anywhere near as entertaining as a plasma TV?

No doubt any objections to eating house pets -- or companion animals, as they are now known -- will be dismissed as manifestations of Western, patriarchal oppression of the differently-cultured.

Will French restaurants now specialize in poodle cuisine? Or, using the example of acorn-fed pigs and grass-fed beef, will we be treated to menu items like "cheese-eating surrender monkeys"?

Or, as Conan O'Brien suggested on The Tonight Show, at the new Disney World in China, "the 101 Dalmatians exhibit will be called 'the food court.'"

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Election Day Twitter Feed

2009-11-04T00:12:00.005-05:00

You can see what I did on Election Day (more or less) by reading this Twitter feed from bottom to top -- past to present.

I wasn't able to follow Twitter much during the day, but I was pleased to see this Tweet from Charlottesville Democrat Jennifer McKeever:

cville folks obviously should be following @rick_sincere for election turnout updates and other cool things

Thanks for the plug!

Remember, scroll down and read up:

I've posted Election Day photos of @creighdeeds and other politicians at http://tinyurl.com/yzxafau #cville #vapolitics #election
3 minutes ago from web

if Charlottesville is a bellwether, @creighdeeds has won in a landslide
about 5 hours ago from mobile web

five minutes left till close of polls!
about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Charlottesville has only 16 provisional votes so far, to be weighed at 11 a.m. Wednesday by Electoral Board #cville
about 7 hours ago from mobile web

most recent numbers from Recreation Precinct are 1305 eSlate, 385 eScan #cville #election
about 7 hours ago from mobile web

Clark Precinct has had 128 paper ballots on eScan and 731 eSlate ballots #cville #election
about 7 hours ago from mobile web

Tonsler precinct has voted 412 on eSlate and 104 on eScan #cville #election
about 8 hours ago from mobile web

Venable Precinct reports 758 voting eSlate and 88 voting paper ballot on eScan #cville #election
about 8 hours ago from mobile web

latest Carver precinct numbers: 481 on eSlate, 126 on eScan #cville #election
about 8 hours ago from mobile web

Liz Palka of CBS 19 interviewed me about turnout and gen'l Election Day topics #tv #cville
about 8 hours ago from mobile web

had a nice chat with former Mayor David Brown about upcoming Va Film Festival #cville
about 8 hours ago from mobile web

Alumni Hall Precinct, new figures: 358 electronic voters + 40 paper voters #cville #vapolitics
about 9 hours ago from mobile web

latest Jefferson Park numbers: 985 eSlate (DRE) and 121 eScan (paper ballot) #cville
about 9 hours ago from mobile web

Creigh Deeds is at Recreation Precinct #cville #vagov #vapolitics
about 12 hours ago from mobile web

documentary film crew following delegate candidate Brandon Smith is shooting inside Recreation #cville #vapolitics
about 13 hours ago from mobile web

Recreation Precinct has voted 165 paper ballots and 596 electronic ballots #cville #vapolitics
about 13 hours ago from mobile web

parking at Jefferson Park cleared up, much better now #cville
about 14 hours ago from mobile web

Jefferson Park voters prefer eSlate - 553 electronic, 65 paper ballots (eScan) #cville #vapolitics
about 14 hours ago from mobile web

parking at Jefferson Park precinct is at a premium right now #cville
about 14 hours ago from mobile web

Clark Precinct - 292 electronic voters, 49 paper voters #cville #vapolitics
about 14 hours ago from mobile web

Mayor Dave Norris is greeting voters at Clark Precinct; he posed for pic #cville #vapolitics
about 14 hours ago from mobile web

write-in City Council candidate Williams was at Walker Precinct a few minutes ago #cville
about 14 hours ago from mobile web

Carver Precinct - 175 voters choose eSlate, 17 choose paper ballots #cville #vapolitics
about 15 hours ago from mobile web

parking is tighter than usual at Carver Precinct (Jefferson School) #cville
about 15 hours ago from mobile web

Alumni Hall Precinct: 101 voters have chosen eSlate (DRE) and 7 have chosen paper ballot (eScan) #cville #vapolitics
about 15 hours ago from mobile web

at Walker Precinct, 239 have voted on eSlate (DRE) and 16 on eScan (paper ballot) #cville #vapolitics
about 16 hours ago from mobile web

City Councilor Huja is campaigning outside Walker Precinct #cville
about 16 hours ago from mobile web

92 voters at Venable have chosen eSlate (DRE) and 15 have chosen eScan (paper ballot) #cville #vapolitics
about 16 hours ago from mobile web

parking situation at Venable Precinct is tremendously improved over years past #cville
about 16 hours ago from mobile web

City Council write-in candidate Andrew Williams is greeting voters at Tonsler #cville #vapolitics
about 17 hours ago from mobile web

Tonsler Precinct has had 52 voters so far, 17 using paper ballots #cville #vapolitics
about 17 hours ago from mobile web

unexpected excitement: sudden smell of smoke brought firefighters to City Hall Annex. All is well!
about 17 hours ago from mobile web

now buying Spudnuts for voting office staff #cville
about 18 hours ago from mobile web

polls are open; just voted at Jefferson Park. About 13 voters queued up at 6 a.m.
about 18 hours ago from mobile web

Polls open in 75 minutes. #vapolitics
about 20 hours ago from web

RT @andylevy To be fair, why should the media understand that the Tea Partiers aren't Republicans when the GOP doesn't? #tcot #tlot
11:45 PM Nov 2nd from web

As I did during the June primary, I'll have an Election Day Twitter stream from early a.m. until after the polls close. #vapolitics #cville
9:31 PM Nov 2nd from web

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Election Day 2009 Photos

2009-11-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

What a long, long day!

We just finished counting up the write-in votes in Charlottesville at 10:35 p.m. Considering that I've been awake since 4:00 o'clock a.m., I'm going to forgo analyzing those results until a more conscious moment, perhaps tomorrow after the canvass is complete.

To whet your appetite, however, I will mention that "Bernard Madoff" earned a vote for Commissioner of the Revenue and "Scrooge McDuck" was someone's preference for Charlottesville Treasurer. Over 800 write-in votes were cast, mostly in the uncontested races for School Board, Commonwealth's Attorney, Commissioner of the Revenue, and Treasurer -- though there were also write-in votes in the triple digits for City Council. By contrast, the statewide races and the contest for the House of Delegates received only a handful of write-in votes.

Here are a few photos I took during the course of the day.

The day began with a smell of smoke in the City Hall Annex, where the Office of Voter Registration and Elections is located. A call to 911 summoned the fire brigade, who found nothing hazardous but who agreed we did the right thing by reporting a possible emergency.

Andrew Williams, a write-in candidate for City Council, seemed to be everywhere during the course of the day. I found him first in the early morning light outside Tonsler Precinct.

A mysterious hot-air balloon hovered over Charlottesville during the morning of Election Day. I caught this photo near Venable Precinct, on Fourteenth Street.

Walker Precinct had a steady stream of voters throughout the day and, as usual, reported the highest percentage of voter turnout among Charlottesville's eight precincts.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris, seen here campaigning outside of Clark Precinct, won re-election to City Council handily, with over 6,000 votes.

Independent candidate Robert Brandon Smith III challenged incumbent Delegate David Toscano in the 57th House district. Here he's campaigning outside of Recreation Precinct. He eventually earned about 21% of the vote in the two-way contest.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds stopped in Charlottesville as he made his way from Bath County to Richmond. He greeted supporters, including Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman, outside Recreation Precinct at 11:30 a.m.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Video from Nathanael Greene Freedom Festival

2009-11-02T03:12:00.002-05:00

On Saturday evening, I posted a photograph of five candidates for the GOP congressional nomination in Virginia's Fifth District. All five are campaigning for the privilege of facing incumbent Representative Tom Perriello (R-Ivy) in the general election of November 2010.

I was also able to capture video of four of the five when the spoke to the political activists gathered at the Nathanael Greene Freedom Festival, which took place on the grounds of Ruckersville Elementary School in Greene County. Unfortunately, my videotape ran out just before the fifth candidate, state Senator Robert Hurt, took the stage.

I apologize to Senator Hurt and want to make clear this was not intended as a slight. There were other video cameras present at the event, and they might have captured his speech and posted it to the Internet by now. I am sure I'll have other opportunities to record speeches by Senator Hurt and the other four candidates between now and the convention/primary/unassembled caucus next spring. (The Fifth District Republican Committee has not yet chosen a method of nomination.)

Before the candidates spoke, WINA-AM radio talk-show host Rob Schilling gave a short address. You'll notice how windy it was: papers were blowing everywhere, flags were mostly unfurled, and it often sounds like someone is snorting into the camera's microphone. That's not a snort, it's the wind.

Rob Schilling:

I would like to gently correct Rob for a misquotation. He attributes the line, "A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have," to Thomas Jefferson. This mistaken attribution is common. It was not said by our third president, however, but rather by the 38th president, Gerald R. Ford. He used a similar line in the early 1960s, when he was a congressman, and repeated it in an address to a joint session of Congress in 1974. I remember hearing it in his 1976 speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination, but have not been able to find a reference that confirms my recollection.

Thomas Jefferson said many marvelous things, but this is not one of them. Gerald Ford said more than "Whip Inflation Now" and "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"

The first congressional candidate to speak was Feda Morton of Fluvanna County:

The second candidate to speak was Michael McPadden of Albemarle County:

The third candidate, also from Albemarle County, was Ken Boyd:

The fourth candidate (another from Albemarle County) was Laurence Verga:

At this point, my camera hit a wall, to my chagrin. I missed several other speakers who followed, including Delegate Rob Bell (R-58) and business owner Tom Slonaker (Forest Lake Arby's) as well as state Senator Hurt.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Class of 2010 Photo

2009-10-31T17:57:00.001-04:00

Five of the candidates for the Republican nomination in the Fifth Congressional District race to select an opponent to incumbent Representative Tom Perriello (D-Ivy) appeared today at the first annual FreedomFest in Greene County. The event, with multiple sponsorships that included the Jefferson Area Tea Party and the Green County Republican Committee, attracted about 150 to 200 people and featured food, drinks, and a moon bounce for the kids.

For the first time (but probably not the last) the five candidates posed for a photograph (at my suggestion).

From left to right: Ken Boyd, Laurence Verga, Feda Morton, Michael McPadden, Robert Hurt.

Video from the event will be posted later today.

Update: More photos from the Green County FreedomFest can be found on Facebook.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Watch Your Language!

2009-10-28T19:05:00.000-04:00

A couple of items from today's Daily Progress deserve comment because of their infelicitous use of the English language (which, as Henry Higgins put it, is the language of "Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible").

First, a Media General News Service article on page 2A about the new U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, Timothy Heaphy, refers to Heaphy as "a former federal prosecutor and most recently a white-collar criminal defense attorney in Charlottesville."

This is, as an attorney might say, facially false. The same article notes that Heaphy was sworn in on October 16, which makes him the current federal prosecutor. It would be better to say something like this:

Heaphy most recently worked as a white-collar criminal defense attorney and, before that, served as a lower-level federal prosecutor...

By the way, the article does not appear on the Daily Progress web site (or at least it cannot be easily located there), but the same report can be found on the web site of the Lynchburg News & Advance, dated October 27.

Second, in a letter to the editor aimed at discouraging votes for gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, John M. Bowman of Charlottesville uses the hamhanded and demeaning phrase, "gay and lesbian lifestyle," a formulation that betrays what might be called "soft bigotry."

I have a message for Mr. Bowman. I resent his condescension and can assure him that, as a gay man, I do not have a "lifestyle," I have a life.

Would Mr. Bowman talk about the "straight lifestyle" of opposite-sex married couples? I think not. He would, if he gave it the slightest thought, identify such a phrase as bizarre and insulting.

I frankly do not need ill-informed letter-writers deigning to speak on my behalf. If I want your "help," I'll ask for it -- but before that, take a look at a calendar. It's the 21st century now.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

One of the Best Congressional News Releases ... Ever

2009-10-28T17:06:00.001-04:00

By sheer coincidence, I ate at an Asian restaurant last night and received a fortune in my fortune cookie that said "Leaders are readers."

Here is the entirety of a news release from the office of U.S. Representative Jeff Flake (R-Arizona):

Congressman Flake Releases Statement Regarding His Vote Against Honoring the 2560th Birthday of Confucius

Washington, D.C., Oct 28 - Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today released the following statement regarding his vote against H.Res.784, a bill “honoring the 2560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizing his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought.”

“He who spends time passing trivial legislation may find himself out of time to read healthcare bill,” said Flake.

H/T: Radley Balko via Twitter

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Gay Politicos Back McDonnell

2009-10-28T16:20:00.000-04:00

At the invitation of David Lampo of the Log Cabin Republican Club of Northern Virginia, I became one of the signatories to a letter expressing support for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. The letter expressly addresses McDonnell's positions on issues of concern to members of Virginia's gay and lesbian community (or, as the language of the letter has it, "LGBT community").

Here is the text of the letter, which is being released more widely today. (Amy Gardner already has the story on the Washington Post's Virginia Politics blog.)

An Open Letter to the GLBT Community about Republican Candidate for Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell

On November 3, Virginians will choose their next governor. While no GLBT person could reasonably see Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for Governor, as a pro-GLBT candidate, we believe that it is important for members of the GLBT community to understand that this campaign and this candidate are fundamentally different from other Republican campaigns and candidates for Governor. The difference is important for us as members of the GLBT community, and, as Republicans, we hope it signals a real commitment to move the Party in the right direction – back toward its historic role as the true guardian of individual liberty.

During this campaign, and particularly during the last few months, McDonnell has repeatedly and without equivocation said that government should not discriminate in employment or services based on sexual orientation. No other Republican candidate for statewide office has ever done that, including his running mates in this election. And in no other statewide election have any two candidates for statewide office from either party sought in debates and other forums to position themselves as people who will seek to govern free from bias against GLBT Virginians.

In September, after the Washington Post released his 20-year-old thesis that included clearly homophobic language, McDonnell told the press, “Sexual orientation never enters into the equation. Government should not punish or discriminate based on anyone’s sexual orientation.”

In a more recent interview, McDonnell told Style Weekly (10/20/09) that

“… everybody ought to be treated equally under the law. I firmly believe that. When I was attorney general there were no inquiries [of employees] that were made other than this: Are you talented, are you qualified, do you care about Virginia, will you get good results? That was my policy as attorney general, it will be my policy as governor. I believe that everybody has equal civil rights in this state. That’s what I will enforce enthusiastically as governor.… Everybody’s got equal rights that need to be protected.”

Given his history and voting record as a member of the House of Delegates, we understand why many are skeptical of his recent statements, but McDonnell’s actions as Attorney General provide a reasoned basis for believing that, if elected, McDonnell will be a Governor with whom the GLBT community can work in seeking to pass laws that will provide assurance that his commitment to nondiscrimination will last beyond his administration.

As Attorney General:
• McDonnell supported early on two bills introduced by Democrat Del. David Englin (and subsequently supported by most of the Republicans in the state legislature) that established hospital visitation rights for domestic partners and set up a state registry of advanced medical directives. McDonnell’s endorsement of these bills helped galvanize Republican support, and both bills became law.

• McDonnell issued an opinion that found that the state’s so-called marriage amendment would not interfere with contracts, wills, medical directives, and other agreements in the state and “will not modify the application of Virginia’s domestic violence laws” to GLBT couples.

• McDonnell also issued an opinion that allows state employees to designate someone other than a legal spouse to qualify for gym membership benefits, a precedent-setting ruling that provides a legal foundation for extending other state benefits to domestic partners of state employees.
We are under no illusion that McDonnell is now a champion of gay rights. Nonetheless, his more recent statements and actions give us optimism that McDonnell would offer GLBT people meaningful roles in his administration and the opportunity to work with him to enact laws that will secure for GLBT people the equal rights he has said everybody in Virginia has the right to expect. That is quite different from what we had come to expect from Republican candidates for Governor in past elections, and it is something for which McDonnell should receive due credit from our community.

David Lampo, Vice President, Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia

Chris Barron, Chairman of the Board, GOProud

Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director, GOProud

Rick Sincere, At-Large Board Member, Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia

Robert G. Atkins, Treasurer, Arlington County Republican Committee

Affiliations are for identification purposes only.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Choo-Choo Chugs Along

2009-10-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

My post on October 2 about how Charlottesville-based travelers to Washington, D.C., have been flim-flammed by promoters of a new Amtrak train to the Nation's Capital has resulted in an invitation to be on the radio.

On Wednesday, October 28, from 12:05 to 1:00 p.m., I will be a guest on The Schilling Show on WINA-AM (1070 on the dial) in Charlottesville, to discuss passenger rail. John Pfaltz will also be on the show, to offer an alternate point of view.

I explained to the show's host, Rob Schilling, that I am not an expert on transportation policy and that I do not pretend to be such. But I'm willing to make my case that, as an individual, it is less expensive for me to travel to Washington by driving my own car than it is to purchase a round-trip ticket on Amtrak, the heavily-subsidized, federally-owned and -operated passenger rail company.

I may point out how British railroads improved markedly after Tony Blair's Labour government privatized them in the 1990s.

The show invites callers to ask questions and express their own points of view. I hope readers will take the opportunity to do that. Let Rob know you heard about the show on this blog, too!

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

WaPo Endorses Four GOP House Candidates

2009-10-25T16:32:00.000-04:00

In its endorsements for about two dozen races for the House of Delegates in Northern Virginia, the Washington Post has selected just four Republicans that its editorial board believes are worthy of election. One is an incumbent; one is challenging an incumbent; and two are running in open-seat races. Two are candidates in territory familiar to me, Arlington County.

The incumbent is Thomas Rust. This is what the Post says about him and his race:

District 86: Thomas D. Rust, the incumbent, is one of the more effective lawmakers in the General Assembly, a pro-business Republican who has also gained backing for some of his initiatives from environmentalists. Mr. Rust has enacted important legislation that will ease the way for more toll roads to be built, and he's played a constructive, responsible role in securing funding for education and other priorities that many in his own party opposed. His Democratic opponent, Stevens Miller, is a capable lawyer who's served for two years on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

The GOP challenger to an incumbent is Aaron Ringel:

District 48: Robert H. Brink, the Democratic incumbent, has held this seat for a decade, and in that time he's barely faced a serious challenge. This year he has one in the form of Republican Aaron Ringel, a bright young combat veteran of the war in Iraq who works for a defense contractor. Mr. Brink is a competent legislator but he has opposed widening Interstate 66. That wins points with some homeowners who'd be directly affected but does little for the tens of thousands of commuters who suffer that road daily. Mr. Ringel takes a broader regional view of that issue.

One of the open-seat candidates is Eric Brescia, who is seeking to succeed Al Eisenberg in Arlington's 47th District. I posted a video interview with Brescia back in August. Here is what the Post says about him in Sunday's edition:

District 47: Two excellent candidates--Republican Eric Brescia and Democrat Patrick Hope -- are competing for this open seat. Mr. Hope, a health-care lobbyist, has 10 years of experience as a neighborhood activist and even longer expertise involving Medicaid and mental health issues. By contrast, Mr. Brescia, an economist who's just 24, is a relative newcomer. However, he is exactly what the Republicans need in Northern Virginia: an independent-minded thinker who has fresh and specific ideas for how to save money in health care and make government work better. A Green Party candidate, Joshua F. Ruebner, has a long record of civic engagement but has not mounted a serious campaign.

The Post endorsed Danny Smith, another open-seat candidate, on Friday:

District 38: Danny R. Smith, the Republican candidate, is a bright, independent-minded civic leader who cares about promoting affordable housing. A Realtor and corporate executive, he would bring a refreshingly bipartisan sensibility to Richmond. He's a better choice than his opponent, L. Kaye Kory, a sincere but lackluster Fairfax school board member who beat incumbent Robert Hull in a Democratic primary.

The Post's criteria may not be clear (why Brescia, for instance, but not Rich Anderson or Rafael Lopez?) but its endorsement is sure to carry weight in the near suburbs of Washington. In a race with three candidates like that in the 47th, the Post's endorsement may be enough to carry Eric Brescia over the finish line.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Welcome Company

2009-10-20T23:30:00.001-04:00

It took me until darkness fell to pick up a paper copy of today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, which is fairly easy to do in Charlottesville. (One of our election officials mentioned to me at training tonight that he had seen and liked my article.) Once I did purchase a copy, I discovered that my op-ed on federal hate-crime laws was placed in juxtaposition to some very good and well-known writers.

My article was positioned on the upper right-hand corner of the page and its two columns extend about two-thirds down along that page. Running parallel, to the left, is a George F. Will column about economic policy. Will's piece does not appear on the Times-Dispatch web site, but, as it was published in last Sunday's Washington Post (under a different headline, "The Real Jobs Threat" instead of "Stimulating Incumbency"), it can be found there.

There is also a Robert Arian editorial cartoon showing Barack Obama at his desk with a plaque that reads "THE BUCK DROPS HERE."

Underneath those two articles, across the bottom third of the page, is an article originally published in the The Wall Street Journal on October 12. Written by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, the original headline was "George Shultz on the Drug War"; the Times-Dispatch headline was "George Shultz Weighs In on the Continuing Drug War."

Will writes:

Republicans are operatic when they pretend to take seriously, in order to wax indignant about, the Democrats' professed plan to partially pay for Sen. Max Baucus's version of reform by cutting at least $400 billion from Medicare. Supporters of the Baucus bill are guilty of many things but not, regarding such cuts, of sincerity. Congress regularly vows to make Medicare cuts, and as regularly defers them.

Today, Washington routinely speaks of trillions, as in: This year's trillion-dollar deficit. And the $9 trillion in projected deficits over 10 years. And the upwards of $1.8 trillion that Baucus's "$829 billion plan" would actually cost in the first 10 years (2014-23) in which its provisions would be fully operational. But the number from which Washington flinches is precisely 999,999,999,997 less than a trillion. It is: 3.

Many Democrats believe that rising unemployment means the nation needs a "second" stimulus -- but one they could call something other than a stimulus because it would be the third. The first was passed in February 2008, two months after the recession began. Its $168 billion tax rebate failed to stimulate because overleveraged Americans perversely saved much of it.

Admitting that the first stimulus existed would complicate the task of justifying a third one, given that the second one -- the $787 billion extravaganza that galloped through Congress in February -- has not been the success its advocates said it would be.

O'Grady wrote, with regard to the former Secretary of State's realization that the misguided war on drugs has been a failure:

Mr. Shultz recalls what happened shortly after he left government, when his view that interdiction is not the solution came up after a speech to a Stanford alumni group.

Then, as now, he believed that we need to look at the problem from an economic perspective and understand what happens when there is high demand for a prohibited substance. When his comment hit the press, he says he "was inundated with letters. Ninety-eight percent of them agreed with me and over half of those people said I'm glad you said it, but I wouldn't dare say it. The most poignant comment was from [a former member of the House of Representatives] who wrote and said I was glad to see your statement. I said that a few years ago and that's why I'm no longer a congressman!"

I asked Mr. Shultz if he thinks a more sensible approach might come from the states. He says "people can express themselves a little better at the state level." And, with respect to some liberalization of the drug-possession laws at the state level, "I regard these developments as a distinctive statement by people that the present system is not working very well and they want to change it."

It's nice to be in such pleasant, intelligent, and erudite company.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

My Hate-Crimes Op-Ed in the RTD

2009-10-20T01:33:00.003-04:00

Tuesday morning's readers of the Richmond Times-Dispatch will turn to the op-ed page, as they normally do before checking out sports or comics, and see a piece I wrote on the new federal hate-crimes law, which has been passed as part of the massive (1,158 pages) Defense Authorization bill and will soon be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The law is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student who died eleven years ago at the hands of violent criminals. His killers were sentenced to life in prison. They could have received the death penalty, but Shepard's family requested the more lenient punishment.

The crux of my argument in the Times-Dispatch is here:

What is particularly disturbing about the Matthew Shepard Act, however, is that this bill federalizes crimes that properly belong under state or local jurisdiction. It signifies creeping encroachment of federal law on state prerogatives and the dulling of the distinction between the central government in Washington and the various state governments.

Previous federal hate-crime statutes were written when state and local authorities often looked the other way if crimes of violence were committed against members of minority groups. These laws were narrowly focused and meant specifically to prosecute crimes against victims engaged in a federally protected civil-rights activity (such as helping to register African-Americans to vote).

The current bill says the federal government can step in to prosecute a case if "the verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to State charges left demonstratively unvindicated the Federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence." In other words, if a U.S. attorney dislikes an acquittal or the punishment of someone convicted under state law, he can re-open the case as a federal matter.

By Orwellian logic, this kind of re-prosecution does not violate the Constitution's prohibition on double jeopardy, because the same act becomes two separate crimes -- one state and one federal.

The days when crimes against victims from socially-disliked minority groups were routinely ignored by state and local law-enforcement authorities are in the past. Yes, there may still be exceptions to this welcome trend, and prosecutors who fail to do their jobs properly should be sent packing by the voters. In the majority of cases, however -- including the headline-grabbing murders of James Byrd and Matthew Shepard in the 1990s -- police and prosecutors pursue the perpetrators to the full extent the law allows.

The Matthew Shepard Act is a done deal as far as Congress and the President are concerned. That does not mean we should tolerate it or the further perforation of the lines between federal and state government that is, sadly, sure to follow it.

Update, October 21: The Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed now also appears on the Independent Gay Forum.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Obama Administration Gets One Right

2009-10-19T15:31:00.003-04:00

Peter McWilliams must be looking down from heaven with a smile of satisfaction but also with a question: "What took so long?"

McWilliams was the libertarian author of the 1996 book, Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society, and a patient who used medical marijuana.

He died because the government arrested him and denied him access to his medicine.

The late William F. Buckley, Jr., wrote about McWilliams in June 2000, shortly after McWilliams died:

A federal judge in California (George King) would decide in a few weeks how long a sentence to hand down, and whether to send McWilliams to prison or let him serve his sentence at home.

What was his offense? He collaborated in growing marijuana plants.

What was his defense? Well, the judge wouldn't allow him to plead his defense to the jury. If given a chance, the defense would have argued that under Proposition 215, passed into California constitutional law in 1996, infirm Californians who got medical relief from marijuana were permitted to use it. The judge also forbade any mention that McWilliams suffered from AIDS and cancer, and got relief from the marijuana.

What was he doing when he died? Vomiting. The vomiting hit him while in his bathtub, and he choked to death. Was there nothing he might have done to still the impulse to vomit? Yes, he could have taken marijuana; but the judge's bail terms forbade him to do so, and he submitted to weekly urine tests to confirm that he was living up to the terms of his bail.

Today the Obama Administration struck a blow for life, liberty, and property when it announced that it will no longer be a federal law-enforcement priority to prosecute sick people who use medicinal marijuana to treat their illnesses, or the caregivers who provide them with the medicine.

Carrie Johnson reports in the Washington Post:

The Obama administration delivered new guidance on medical marijuana to federal prosecutors Monday, signaling a broad policy shift that will mean fewer crackdowns against dispensaries and the people who use them.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. instructed government lawyers that in 14 states where medical marijuana use is legal, federal prosecutors should focus only on cases involving higher level drug traffickers or people who use the state laws as a cover story.

"It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal," Holder said. "This balanced policy formalizes a sensible approach that the Department has been following since January: effectively focus our resources on serious drug traffickers while taking into account state and local laws."

The Administration's decision strikes a blow for life because there are people who may die without access to medicinal marijuana.

It strikes a blow for liberty because people should be free to choose the sorts of treatments they use for their illnesses.

It strikes a blow for property because people should be able to do anything on their private property they wish, as long as they do not violate the rights of other people, without the interference of government.

Or, as Peter McWilliams put it, paraphrasing that blues anthem of the 1920s: "Ain't nobody's business if you do."

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Saintly Mishegoss

2009-10-18T19:14:00.002-04:00

On this weekend's edition of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the humorous news quiz show on National Public Radio, the "Not My Job" guest was Susie Essman, who plays the furious, foul-mouthed Susie Greene on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Essman, a Jewish comedienne from New York, had to answer questions about a topic she was unlikely to know anything about.

The producers chose to quiz her about odd-but-true facts about three Catholic saints: St. Simeon Stylites, St. Joseph of Cupertino, and St. Clare of Assisi.

What were the odd facts? Did Essman answer correctly? Did she win a prize for a listener?

You'll have to listen for yourself:

Note: My spelling of "mishegoss" is the one approved by the late William Safire. It has alternative spellings, as well as an interesting etymology.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Climbing to the Top? A Roundup Roundup

2009-10-18T18:20:00.004-04:00

Yesterday in Glen Allen, Republican activists from the Seventh Congressional District (and from farther away, too -- there was a busload from Page County, as well) gathered at the Innsbrook Pavilion for the fifth annual Republican Roundup.

Not a fundraiser -- anyone who attended did so with no fee -- the Roundup is more of a pep rally timed to the homestretch of the election campaign. Yesterday marked 17 days before Virginia's statewide elections on November 3. Two of the top-of-the-ticket candidates were there, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell (who is running for governor) and state Senator Ken Cuccinelli (who is running for attorney general). Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (who is running for re-election) was unable to attend because of a family commitment.

Seventh District Congressman Eric Cantor, who serves as the House Minority Whip, also attended and spent a lot of time in conversation with his constituents. In addition, there were about two dozen past and current elected officials, including members of the House of Delegates, former Governor Jim Gilmore, and former Lieutenant Governor John Hager. RPV chairman Pat Mullins was also in attendance.

The Roundup offered live music, hot dogs and barbecue, moon bounces for the kids, and a climbing wall, in addition to the politicking.

The Seventh District committee set up a "bloggers' row" with electrical connections and tables available for Virginia bloggers. Crystal Clear Conservative was live blogging there, and so was Bearing Drift. Bearing Drift put up at least two posts on the Roundup, including an exclusive video interview with Representative Cantor. Tom White of Virginia Right and Lynn Mitchell of SWAC Girl were also there, but they don't seem to have posted anything about the Roundup (at least not yet).

As for me, I took the opportunity to videotape the speeches, which from start to finish lasted less than 35 minutes. (No Joe Bidens on that stage, that's for sure!)

First, Seventh District GOP Chairman Linwood Cobb welcomed the crowd. His remarks about respecting the property rights of the owners of the Innsbrook Pavilion (they do not permit firearms on their property) have attracted a flurry of criticism on the YouTube page where I posted the video last night. Judge Cobb's explanation for yourself:

Second, Delegate John O'Bannon delivered a prayer:

Third, a candidate for the House of Delegates in the 69th District, Ernesto Sampson, led the group in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance:

Fourth, Ken Cuccinelli stimulated the crowd with a broom and chants of "Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!," referring to the Republicans' chances of winning all three statewide offices on November 3, a repeat of what happened in 1997, when Jim Gilmore, John Hager, and Mark Earley were elected, respectively, Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General.

Fifth, Bob McDonnell encouraged the activists to reach out to their friends and neighbors to get them to vote, because political success is determined by who shows up:

Finally, Minority Whip Eric Cantor took the stage. He said, "We have a stellar statewide team" in McDonnell, Bolling, and Cuccinelli. "We're going to win," he said, "because this is a campaign about ideas." Check out the rest:

I have posted more photos from the Roundup on Facebook. They can be seen here, even by non-members of the world's most popular social networking site. (You know who you are!)

Update: SWAC Girl has photographs and an additional, detailed report on the Roundup.

Another Update: My most popular video on YouTube, the speech by Adnan Barqawi at the 2009 Republican Party of Virginia state convention, is about to have its 15,000th view. As of right now (7:28 p.m., October 18) it has had 14,997 views.

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Video Interview with Garrett Peck

2009-10-17T02:35:00.001-04:00

On Friday night, I was able to nab an exclusive interview with Arlington-based author Garrett Peck, who was in Charlottesville to speak about his new book, The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, at the Barnes & Noble book store at Barracks Road Shopping Center. Earlier in the day, Peck had spoken in Lexington to a group of VMI cadets at his alma mater and to other area residents.

I first encountered Peck a few weeks ago when I was in D.C. on business. Stuck in traffic on Interstate 66 in mid-afternoon, I tuned to the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU-FM. The conversation was about alcoholic beverage regulation -- a topic that has long interested me -- but it wasn't until the end of the interview that I learned the guest's name and that he was scheduled to speak that night at the Arlington Central Library. Since the library was just a few blocks from where my car would be parked, I decided to attend the presentation.

Peck's talk was interesting and entertaining. (It was accompanied by a slide show with images of the temperance movement and drinking culture.) When he mentioned that he would soon be in Charlottesville to talk about his book, I made a note of it.

That's how I found myself in the religion section of Barnes & Noble last evening, sitting with Garrett Peck and asking him questions about alcoholic beverage regulation, the drinking age, regional differences in attitudes toward alcohol consumption (and preferences for types of beverages), and other topics touched upon in The Prohibition Hangover.

The interview is in two parts of about seven minutes each, both also available on YouTube.

The first part includes introductory material. The second part addresses the most controversial question -- should the drinking age be lowered back to 18 -- and the efforts of groups like the Amethyst Initiative.

Part I:

Part II:

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

TV and Human Fertility

2009-10-16T02:59:00.000-04:00

In an article on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to ban the sale of big-screen television sets in California (apparently he hasn't heard that Californians with cars can drive to Nevada, Oregon, or Mexico to go appliance shopping), the Daily Mail includes this paragraph:

Televisions account for about 10 per cent of residential energy use in California, the state with the highest population in the U.S., driven largely by the surge in sales of large flat screens.

So California's population growth is due to the sale of big screen TVs? What is it that people are watching there?

Does China have a two-plasma-TV-set-per-family policy?

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!

Libertarian Evolution

2009-10-16T02:22:00.000-04:00

The front page of the Style section of Thursday's Washington Post had a long article on the announcement of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The article, by Jacqueline Trescott, begins:

The National Museum of Natural History announced Wednesday that it is dedicating a new hall to the story of human evolution, giving emphasis not only to how we became humans but how changes in the natural world affected human development.

The Hall of Human Origins, tracing a 6 million-year history, is scheduled to open March 17 -- 100 years to the day that the museum opened.

A news release from the Smithsonian Institution states:

The $20.7 million exhibition hall will be complemented by ongoing human origins research and education programs, which are all key components of the museum’s broader initiative, “Human Origins: What Does It Mean to Be Human?” The initiative focuses on the epic story of human evolution and how the defining characteristics of the species have evolved over 6 million years as its ancestors adapted to a changing world. The museum will launch a compelling new Smithsonian Human Origins Web site and a revolutionary virtual experience hosted on the Blue Mars 2150 virtual Web site. It will include a complete reproduction of the physical exhibition plus additional features visitors can only experience on the Web....

More than 50 U.S. and international scientific research and education organizations, such as the U.S. National Academies of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Museum of Kenya and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and more than 70 distinguished scientists and educators are collaborating with the Human Origins Initiative’s research, education and outreach programs.

Visitors to the 15,000-square-foot Hall of Human Origins will be immersed in a unique, interactive museum experience illuminating the major milestones in the origin of human beings and the drama of climate change, survival and extinction that have characterized humans’ ancient past. On entering the exhibition from the Sant Ocean Hall, visitors will travel through a dramatic time tunnel depicting life and environments over the past 6 million years. Visitors will also engage with life-size forensically reconstructed faces of early human species, all designed to provide visitors with a sense of personal connection as they look into the eyes and faces of their distant ancestors.

Other key features in the exhibition include interactive snapshots in time using the actual field sites where research is being conducted, a display of more than 75 skulls (cast reproductions) and an interactive human family tree showcasing 6 million years of evolutionary evidence from around the world, a “One Species Living Worldwide” amphitheater show and a special “Changing the World” gallery, in which visitors can address pressing questions and issues surrounding climate change and humans’ impact on the Earth.

It turns out that the new exhibition is being funded, in large part, with a donation from libertarian philanthropist David Koch -- the same David Koch who was Ed Clark's running mate on the LP presidential ticket in 1980. Trescott continues:

The 15,000-square-foot space will be named for David H. Koch, a chemical engineer and executive vice president of Koch Industries who gave $15 million for the hall's construction. The other primary donor to the project is Peter Buck, a physicist and co-founder of Subway restaurants, who gave $15 million to an endowment for research and accompanying education programs.

The total cost of the hall is $20.7 million, with $3.5 million from other private sources and $2.2 million from the Smithsonian's federal funds.

In a statement, Koch saluted the Human Origins Program, saying, it "has the power to influence the way we view our identity as humans, not only today, but for generations to come." Koch, an MIT-educated engineer, has given generously to many educational, cultural and medical institutions, as well as to conservative political groups. He was the 1980 Libertarian vice presidential candidate.

The article doesn't mention that in 1995, Koch purchased the apartment that once belonged to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when she lived in New York City. Koch sold the flat in 2006. (File that under "real estate trivia.")

No doubt there will be some complaints that the exhibition -- whose displays will trace back human evolution some four million years and include the recently discovered "Ardi" -- is the work of godless libertarians.

Such complaints might come from the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Those behind the Creation Museum believe -- and offer as scientific fact -- that the Earth is only about 10,000 years old, or younger, and that men and dinosaurs co-existed. Though the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum boasts that it is within a 650-mile drive for two-thirds of the U.S. population, it only attracted some 750,000 visitors in the two years after it opened in May 2007.

In contrast, the National Museum of Natural History has drawn about 6 million visitors already this year, as well as 7 million in 2008, 7.1 million in 2007, and 5.8 million in 2006.

Of course, the Natural History Museum offers more than a male porn star portraying Adam in the Garden of Eden. It also has the Hope Diamond, "Wild Ocean 3D" in on an Imax screen, and the reconstructed skeleton of a triceratops. So not everyone who wanders through the Natural History Museum's doors from the National Mall is coming for edification about evolution.

Even so, it is heartening to learn that millions more people are interested in actual science than in charlatanism.

(Illustrations credit: RPDI [Reich & Petch Design International]; courtesy of Smithsonian Institution)

Be sure to visit my CafePress store for gifts and novelty items!
Read my blog on Kindle!
Follow my tweets on Twitter!