I think I am probably the only person that reads this site that this applies too, but there is a special election coming up on December 11th, for VA-1, US Congress. This includes the Fredericksburg area, through the Northern Neck, and on down to Williamsburg and environs. Our Representative, Jo Ann Davis (R), died, kind of unexpectedly, of breast cancer a few months ago. This is the election to replace her.

There are three people running, a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent. Here are their websites:

Rob Wittman (R)
Philip Forgit (D)
Lucky Narain (I)

Wikipedia on the race

It tends to be pretty conservative here in the 1st District, and most of the competition to Rep. Davis (who had something like a 97% conservative rating) tended to be people who felt she wasn’t conservative enough. Apparently though, there’s at least some money being sunk into the race.

I haven’t seen any road signs or mailings yet, though.

Check this out.

Apparently, in order to vote in the Republican primaries in Virginia next year, voters will be required to sign an oath of loyalty to the eventual nominee. You will swear to vote for whichever Republican wins, according to the story.

Sooooo, say you are pro-life. So you vote for Huckabee or something. But then Giuliani wins the nomination. You’ve sworn to vote for him, even though he is pro-choice. Oops.

The Virginia GOP has had a thing for a while about being afraid people are going to sabotage their primaries. Closing them up was an issue in the last gubernatorial election. Now, they (SBE or GOP? I don’t know) just schedule them the same day to make people choose one party or the other. I guess that’s not enough for them, so now they are demanding oaths of fealty, like it’s the middle ages or something. There’s no way to enforce it, besides honor, but seriously WTF.

Senator Warner has announced that he will not run for re-election next year. A sad day for Virginia.

There goes our last chance of having a Virginian in the White House in 2008. The esteemed Jim Gilmore has dropped out of the race. During his brief candidacy, many people wondered, “why is he even running?” Many more wondered, “who is that guy?”

In any case, it goes to show you that even if some dude sets up a “Draft [your name here]” website on the internet, it doesn’t really mean you should actually run. All it means is that a crazy dude had 10$ to spend on a domain name.

But, for those Gilmore diehards out there, don’t give up hope yet. The speculation is that the only sane reason he was running in the first place is that he wants to raise his profile for a run for Virginia Governor or for the possibly open Senate seat currently inhabited by resident badass John Warner. I’m not quite sure how far his profile has been raised here in July 2007, but hey, I guess it looks good on a resume.

Today is the anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous speech down there at St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA. You know the one, about the liberty and such. If I had to guess, I might predict that there may be a reenactment or something going on there, although that may simply come from spending too much time living in Williamsburg - I’m not sure how they do things in Richmond. How they roll.

So this is a famous speech, or at least, it is a famous last paragraph of a speech. The whole thing - in its entirety - is pretty short though, and is worth reading. Even without a preconceived burning hatred for the British, it is pretty effective in instilling one, at least to me. You can read it here, if you like: wikisource.

Of course, something to keep in mind while reading that, and something which the wikipedia article does not mention, but which I am fairly certain is, nonetheless, true, is that no one wrote the speech down while he was speaking it, and Henry was not the sort of person to write down his speeches beforehand. So there is probably a degree of creative license, or creative memory there; be warned.

I might be thinking of the Gettysburg Address though?

The title of this post is stolen from the Daily Show book. FYI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_me_liberty_or_give_me_death

We’ve been having an interesting discussion here about Richmond City’s (possibly) unreasonable minimum monthly water bill. To summarize where we are so far:

• Richmond City residents pay a minimum monthly water bill of 43.55$ regardless of how much water they actually use.
• The average American uses around 400 cubic feet of water a month (supposedly).
• If you use between zero and 10,000 cubic feet of water a month you pay 0.01144$ per cubic foot of water (and 0.01684$ per cubic foot of water water (this is based on how much water you use, not how much is actually waste)).
• If you use between 10,100 and 200,000 cubic feet of water you pay 0.00585$ per cubic foot of water. A savings of 49%.
• Richmond seems to have a much higher minimum monthly water bill than the surrounding counties. Henrico, for instance, has a minimum monthly bill of 26.50$ and that includes 600 cubic feet of water.
• A couple of surrounding counties bill utilities on a bi-monthly schedule. The idea is if you can send out 1.5M less bills each year you can save some cash.

A couple of thoughts that came out of the discussion:

• It seems unjust to charge poor people a (possibly) unreasonable amount for a life necessity.
• Switching to a bi-monthly billing schedule would put an unreasonable strain on poor families, especially in the winter months when gas bills are in the 300$-400$ range per month.
• It might be good to give a “deep discount” to customers who use a small amount of water.
• Perhaps businesses, especially restaurants, depend on the bulk water usage discount. Increasing their rates would ultimately hit our pockets somewhere down the line.
• There is no incentive to conserve water.

Now the question is, “where do we go from here?” Richmond’s Green Party representative, Scott Burger, addressed the City Council about this issue on Monday. I guess a starting point would be to contact your city council representative. A good idea might be to organize a bit and come up with some solutions, or gather some more information.

Also, Burger is offering 100$ cash to anyone that can “find any city in the entire United States that has amore[sic.] regressive minimum water and sewer rate than Richmond’s.” More details after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Turns out. If someone is going to mistake me, over here in my Haduken capacities, as a source of press and send me a press release, well, I am going to have to post it.

Apparently, and I expect someone more intelligent than I to read the press release and tell me if this is true or not, Richmond City gives you a discount if you use over 10,000 cubic feet (umm a lot?) of water each month. To subsidize that discount regular folks like you and I pay a minimum water bill of 43.55$. In Hopewell you can get your water bill down to as low as 12.20$.

So — assuming this isn’t a hoax0rz — call your council person and complain.

Full text of the release after the jump. Really, I am looking for thoughts on this one.
Read the rest of this entry »

Haha! Just kidding!

From the Falmeister himself:

Now, I’m certainly not a scientist. But if one looks past the superficial reporting of the mainstream media and examines the many alternative scientific views on global warming, it is apparent that the earth frequently experiences warming and cooling trends. It appears to me — and I have been intently studying this subject — that we are now in a warming trend.

Oh Jerry.

I was thinking today about Harriet Miers and how that situation was so entirely bizarre. I love this hilarious quote from her wikipedia article:

Miers’[sic] nomination was criticized from people all over the political spectrum, based on her never having served as a judge …

Remember the Harrier Miers blog, you know “The blog of the #1 nominee for Associate Justice to be picked by the #1 smartest President to ever withdraw, in all of history!!”?

To quote the first entry:

OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M THE NOMINEE!!! This is BIGGEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!! EVER!!!! OMG OMG OMG

Seriously that whole thing was so wacky.

Technorati Tags: politics

We all know that I love Lee-Jackson day. It is a holiday uniquely Virginian and maybe my second favorite holiday (next to Thanksgiving, duh). Obviously that makes me a raving racist right? RIGHT?

Anyway. For today’s Lee-Jackson day celebration the Sons of Confederate Veterans had a small gathering at Lee Circle with some speechifying and general Robert E. Lee fanboyism. There were a couple of re-enactors, a Robert E. Lee look-a-like, and kids decked out in the Battle Flag of the Confederacy (creepy).

Also joining the celebration was a group of protestors presumably from the Virginia Anti-War Network (watch out, the site’s hosted on tripod.com). Because, you know, Lee was known for his love of war and going to war and such. This woman also decided to come out:

Sooooo true. You know who else was a racist? GEORGE WASHINGTON. He is practically the father of all racists — literally. Like he spawned all future racists from his evil loins. Honestly, I read it on the internet once.

I VOTED.

Did you? I’ll post my ballot in the comments after the election is over.

Oh crazy Charlottesville liberals and oh crazy George Allen campaign. The video from YouTube:

Technorati Tags: politics, Virginia, wtf

Earlier this week I saw that John over at CHPN.net had interviewed his City Council candidates. I thought it was such a great idea I stole his questions and fired off an email to both the incumbent, Marty Jewell, and the challenger Silver Persinger. I told both of them that I’d like their responses by today. Silver’s is the first one I’ve received. I’ll post Marty’s when/if I get it.

1. What kind of change would you bring to the 5th District?

I hope the change I would bring would be a change for more responsive council representation. Whether it is working harder to return constituents’ phone calls or making a better effort to keep neighborhood associations informed and holding monthly meetings, alternating between the north side and the south side of the district, to keep the citizens up to date about what is going on at City Hall and to hear first hand the issues that concern the citizens.

2. What do you see as the important issues of this campaign?

The most important issue to me is maintence of the City’s infrastructure — and chiefly the city’s waste water system. I am also interested in restoring the city’s annual tree cutting program, which is something many constituents have entioned as a concern. I am also concerned about the city’s support for the Performing Arts Center, another doomed multi-million dollar waste of money intended to
drive tourism. Mayor Wilder has pretty well retarded their efforts and www.saverichmond.com has done much to shed light on the folly of it all. However, Richmond still has the highest meals tax in the nation and now the 1% meals tax Council approved for the VPAC is being rolled into the funding for the “City of the Future.” It’s a classic case of taxation by misrepresentation.

3. Fox is a very successful public city elementary school. What are some specific programs that you believe would help our other city schools mirror this level of excellence?

I am ignorant of what Fox is doing to be so successful. But I have heard candidates running for 5th District school board mention Fox and what I get out of their comments is that parents are involved in the school. I don’t know if this is something you could easily replicate because it is dependant on the parents. Fox probably happens to be fortunate to be located in a district where the parental demographic is educated and upper-middle income. I’m just assuming that Fox
primarily serves the Fan. If elected to Council, I would make an effort to learn more about the school system. My interest has always been primarily in the Council, which is plenty to keep up with.

4. What can citizens do to improve life in the 5th?

Residents can become citizens. The majority are merely residents. One can easily become a citizen by attending their local neighborhood civic organization, to learn what is going on in their neighborhood, and to give their input on the issues that concern them. Citizens can also attend Council meetings and follow the actions of the Council, and give Council their two cents. There is a sore lack of citizen participation at City Hall. If you care enough to do something to improve life in the 5th District, run for City Council or School Board yourself. Another thing you can do is pull the grass up from the sidewalk in front of your house, and your neighbor’s house if you’ve got the time.

5. What is something that you have to drive out to the county for that you wish that you could get or do in the city?

My primary mode of transportation is a bicycle. About the only thing I ride out to Henrico for is to go to Target. I’m not sure if we need a Target in the city but I would like to see more successful small businesses (preferably co-ops) in the city selling things like underwear and t-shirts.

6. What do you love doing in the 5th District?

I love the people of the 5th District, I have met some cool people during the campaign — people I would have never come into contact with if I hadn’t run for office.

7. Why should we vote for you?

You should vote for me, not because I am a Socialist and want to see everyone with healthcare, jobs, housing, and educational opportunities; but because I am a hard working, intelligent, and citizen-focused candidate. I believe in educating the public and I am eager to learn from the public.

Technorati Tags: politics, Richmond, Virginia

Virginia is now officially a swing state. According to that article, the national Republican party is starting to concentrate their efforts (read: money) on 3-4 senate races: Missouri, Tennessee, New Jersey, and, yes, Virginia. This is significant in that it means they are to some degree abandoning Montana, Ohio (the focus of the article), Pennsylvania (home to Santorum, which is kind of a big deal), and Rhode Island. All of these have Republican incumbents and all of them have been leaning more and more to the challenger in the past weeks.

Basically the situation is that the Republicans need to hold on to 50 seats to keep a majority (with Dick Cheney). The only seat they have a real chance of picking up from a Democrat is in New Jersey. If the Democrats can hold onto that seat (which they have for like 30 years or something ridiculous), then they need to win 2 out of the 3 remaining competetive seats, Missouri (statistical tie), Tennessee (statistical tie), and Virginia (statistical tie as of last week or so) to take the Senate. This election is going to be down to the wire (nationally).

I am hugely in favor of having Virginia as a swing state (swing commonwealth?). I feel like it means you are relatively moderate, which is good for its own sake, and also because people pour money into you and do whatever you say if they think they can earn a favourable glance from you in their direction. When was the last time a foreign policy decision was made because of what people in Utah thought? Never. When was the last time a foreign policy decision was made because of what people in Florida thought? Every day since the end of the Cold War (see: Cuba).

So I think this could be a good thing for Virginia (if it is true). It is also a good thing for the voters in Virginia, because it means your vote really might make a difference in November. So make sure you do it.

PS: This site is a good read if you are like me and follow elections the way most people follow sports. It’s updated daily.

By now everyone knows George Allen hates black people called some guy “macaca” and Jim Web hates women said a thing when he was younger. But do you know who is running for the 5th District City Council spot? I do, but I live there. Anyway, here is an incomplete list of things/people on the ballot this November 7th for your studying pleasure. Vote or emigrate.

US Senators

• George “Macaca” Allen
• Jim “Misogyny” Webb
• Gail “The Rail” Parker

This is the big race, the clash of the TITANS, where the men become boys and the boys become little girls. What we’ve got here is an incumbent who certainly appears to be a racist but perhaps is just a misunderstood good ol’ boy (from SoCal. I shit you not), an ex-Military stick in the mud, and an old lady who’s platform is trains. When she is for monorails, let me know.

Constitutional Amendments

There are three question on this year’s ballot. The big one we all know about: “Gays, what’s with ‘em?” But as ballot questions can be misleading it’ll be good for you to know as much as you can going in to the elections.

Ballot Issue #1

Shall Article I (the Bill of Rights) of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to state: “That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.

Full text and explanation here, PDF unfortunately.

It may interest you that under current Virginia law same-sex marriage *and* civil unions are prohibited. Personally, regardless of your feelings on “the homosexuals,” I’d vote against this amendment. I don’t feel like the “Bill of Rights” is a place to include limits on freedoms. But whatev, just make sure you read that full text and explanation.

Ballot Issue #2

Shall Section 14 of Article IV of the Constitution of Virginia be amended by deleting the provision that prohibits the incorporation of churches, a provision that was ruled to be unconstitutional and therefore now is obsolete?

Full text and explanation here, PDF unfortunately.

Here is a good snippet on the amendment. If I read this right, I think that this particular section of the Constitution of Virginia has been declared (federally) unconstitutional. I think this is more of a house keeping amendment? The less law the better, right?

Ballot Issue #3

Shall Section 6 of Article X of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to authorize legislation to permit localities to provide a partial exemption from real property taxes for real estate

Full text and explanation here, PDF unfortunately.

BOOOOORIIIINNNNGGGG. Currently in Virginia you can get tax exemptions if you rehabilitate old structures in sketchy neighborhoods (simplification). I’m pretty sure this amendment would allow you to get tax exemptions on new structures in sketchy neighborhoods.

US House of Representatives

District 3

• Robert “Bobby” Scott

Just so you know if I don’t know anything about any of the candidates or if a candidate is running unopposed I always write myself in.

District 7

• Eric Cantor
• James M. Nachman
• W. Brad Blanton

ZZzzzzzz.

Otherz

There will be two other things to vote for: City Council and School Board. Most are running unopposed (so I may be your new School Board member!). Two interesting races: Council District 1 and 5.

In the First District Paul Goldman, who previously advised The Mayor, is running against four other candidates. If you live out in the First District (which is basically Staunton) Style Weekly has an article on that race.

In the Fifth District E. M. “Marty” Jewell is running against Silver Persinger. This isn’t really that interesting except that Silver is a Socialist. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. But seriously, the dude is advertising on RVABlogs so he’s a good guy in my book. Also ol’ Marty, from what I have seen of him on the public access City Council meeting show, doesn’t really have much of a clue about what goes on down there.

So there you go. A big list of things/people to research and learn about before November 7th. If you need to figure out who is on your ballot use the State Board of Elections Where Do I Vote tool.

Good luck and good voting!

Technorati Tags: politics, Richmond, Virginia