CatHouse Chat

Update on VA-5 candidates

Well, I'm quite disappointed with Robert Hurt: his website is still only very basic, and has nothing up on the issues of taxation, immigration, health care, the War on Terror, government bureaucracy, jobs, etc. Not good, especially since I'd like to completely support my "hometown guy." Sen. Hurt, you are experienced at campaigning (albeit at the state level), and you should know that you have GOT to get this information out and on the record. Also, I am still concerned for your vote in favor of increased taxes when you were in the House of Delegates.

Ken Boyd also has an extremely simplistic website, and whoever is coding it is not doing a very good job. Just as an FYI, your front page (at the minimum!) should not show up as "Main" on the browser tab; it should at least display the candidate's name! Mr. Boyd is also not showing where he stands on the important issues that interest Virginians. His home page has only a very cursory mention of a few issues, but no specific statements on where he stands and how he intends to implement his positions. Also not good.

Feda Morton now has a real web presence (she used to only have a FaceBook page), and it seems to be nicely straightforward and clear. Her issues page is also very simple and blunt, which I rather like, and her positions match up very well with my own. I have very little patience for flowery rhetoric when gathering information, and the no-nonsense approach is quite attractive, however I would like to see more detail about how she plans to carry out these policies.

Ron Ferrin is a new name to me, and he's GOT to disable the autoplay for the first video on his site (a personal peeve). I very much like his style and stances on the issues he mentions on his front page (his support for the Second Amendment is particularly notable *grinz*), but it quite possibly comes across as a bit too "cowboy" for many. I would like to see a lot more written detail about who he is and what he's done so far because there is no bio. Plus, it might be nice if he started Twittering or FBooking. His videos are quite informative, however, so it's a "fault" I can forgive.  He's not terribly polished - which is not a ping - but he is well-spoken. I'll have to keep an eye on him.

Lawrence Verga's site is well-organized, and he has clear and detailed descriptions of where he stands on the issues. I might quibble that he needs a new favicon, but then... that's a quibble! He is a self-described constitutionalist and has vowed to self-limit to serving only three terms as our Representative. He is a businessman, not a lawyer, according to his bio, and is very involved with charity development. He does have  a health issue (polycystic kidney disease), which I assume requires careful management, but does not appear, at first glance, to be a large barrier. He's definitely an interesting candidate, and I like his positions on the issues.

Finally, there's Mike McPadden. He's a retired Navy pilot (hey! He flew the same airframe my Beloved did!), which is certainly a plus in my mind *grinz*. Mr. McPadden, like Verga, is NOT a lawyer (thank God - I do confess to being very tired of lawyers going to D.C.). He likes the Fair Tax - it seems most of these candidates do - and also has excellent statements on energy and conservation. I like his military experience, which might put him up a bit in a field of candidates who do not seem to have a lot of practical familiarity with national security issues. 

All of the last four candidates are pro-life, all support lower taxes and less government interference in some way. All of them support our Second Amendment rights (again, make sure you watch Ron Ferrin's video!), a strong national defense, and fiscal and governmental conservatism.

Sen. Hurt - although I was inclined to support him after his initial announcement - has not kept current on the issues on his website, and still has much explaining to do on his previous votes in the House of Delegates. Mr. Boyd joins with him in being the most "non-present" pair in the web arena. At this point, I'm kinda leaning for 1) McPadden, 2) a Verga/Morton tie, 3) Ferrin, 4) Hurt and 5) Boyd for my order of preference to go against Perriello.

(UPDATE: Rees? Rees who? C'mon, get serious!)

"Republicans say Kaine is neglecting his duties"

With his state under an emergency declaration because of heavy rain and floods, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine headed to Arkansas for a Democratic fundraiser.

via www.google.com

Well... Ya think?

Tim Kaine: GINO (Governor in Name Only)... From an *ahem*unnamed source*cough*

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

(crossposted to Virginia Virtucon)

John Allen Muhammad recieves final justice

Via e-mail:

Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims tonight released the following statement on the execution of John Allen Muhammad:

“Tonight, John Allen Muhammad was executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for his role in a killing spree that shocked our nation. Families of Virginia were held hostage in their homes, fearing they would be the next victim of a sniper’s bullet. Muhammad was executed for the murder of Dean Meyers, who was shot and killed while fueling his car at a gas station in Manassas. Meyers was one of 10 people murdered, with six additional victims shot, across four states and Washington, D.C., during 47 days of terror by Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. The murder of Meyers was the 12th in the string of 16 shootings. A jury convicted Muhammad of the premeditated capital murder of Meyers in the commission of an act of terrorism, and the premeditated capital murder of Meyers within three years of the premeditated murders of other persons. The jury sentenced him to death for those crimes.

“While nothing can bring back the loved ones lost and lives shattered, tonight justice was served to the fullest extent of the law. Muhammad’s acts seven years ago remain particularly vivid in our minds today.

“Muhammad’s death penalty was exhaustively reviewed and affirmed by the trial court, Virginia Supreme Court, U.S. District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court, and the Governor has declined to intervene. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the surviving victims and their families and friends, and with the families and friends of the 10 innocent victims slain by Muhammad during the unprecedented time of terror in the fall of 2002.”

And all I have to say is:

Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:2-4, ESV)

Related articles by Zemanta

• US sniper execution appeal denied (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Virginia ready to execute 'Beltway sniper' (cnn.com)
• D.C. sniper to die tonight (thestar.com)

OK, now, HOW many Republicans are aiming for Perriello so far?

Besides Robert Hurt, who I just mentioned...

Let me see. There are five others so far (in no particular order)

1. Laurence Verga. Mr. Verga is a second generation (I think) American, and is a self-described "conservative Republican/Constitutionalist." That's good... Looks like he's very pro-national security, pro-life, pro Second Amendment. Excellent! I note he also favors term limits, and has pledged to serve no more than six years in the House. Hm. Oh, and FaceBook page here.
2. Feda Kidd Morton. I'm not seeing a website for her yet (she does have a FaceBook Fan page), here's a Google search on her name. Lots of information, and she certainly looks like an excellent candidate... She has a good background in the grassroots, so I daresay she's pretty well in touch with the majority of the party that's disgusted with RINOs...
3. Bradley Rees. Maybe not such a great candidate... But, then again, he does say he's a Fair Tax guy. Nevertheless, he doesn't look like a serious candidate to me at the moment.
4. Ken Boyd. He's served on the Board of Supervisors and School Board in Albemarle County and presents himself as a fiscal conservative (that's good!). Hm. I see he's also got an extensive background as a banker - well, hopefully that ought to encourage a determination not to overdraw the government bank account!
5. Michael McPadden. Mr. McPadden is also a supporter of the Fair Tax, and looks to be what I call an "Environmental Steward," which is what I would consider to be a reasonable, logical and godly stance on environmental issues. He is a Naval veteran, and certainly appears to be very pro-military. His blurb states "Individual Liberty. Sound Money. Constitutional Restraint."

An interesting group, and from what a friend conversant in Virginia politics has told me, I haven't even scratched the surface: there are apparently over 20 candidates! Yikes...

Come 2010, Perriello is in for a world of HURT!!!

(big kittipurrs to Jim Riley for the post title and the heads-up... )

Go Dan River (which is apparently the Danville Register Bee's online presence) is reporting that Robert Hurt, Virginia's Senator for the 19th District, has decided to campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives:

Confirming what many political pundits have been assuming for months, state Senator Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, filed the paperwork Tuesday to run for Congress in 2010 against Rep.Tom Perriello, D-5th District.

Hurt, a lawyer and Pittsylvania County native, said he and his wife began seriously discussing the idea after former Rep. Virgil Goode opted against another run earlier this year. Hurt said he would wait to make a formal announcement of his candidacy until after the November election, but filed now “because there’s so much to get done.”

Sign me up, Sen. Hurt!

His website, though incomplete at the moment, is live - so go sign up and show your support!

Creigh "Dirty" Deeds

via www.youtube.com

Yup. Deeds has run a lazy campaign which refuses to speak to the issues and prefers to attempt to smear McConnell with half-truths and lies. Classic finger-pointing campaign to attempt to keep the spotlight off himself, excoriating his opponent without offering concrete and sensible solutions of his own.

So much for a "civil" campaign.

DIRTY Deeds, indeed!

Oh, and don't forget to listen to the parody by Jim Hoeft and Brian Kirwin (hey, don't knock 'em - *I* could have been the one singing!!!)

McDonnell's crew has a great sense of humor!

I love it!!! This is in the window of the new Republican Part of Virginia office here in Chatham. They opened, um, two weeks ago. And, like I said, I LOVE their sense of humor! This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless! To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture. Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Learn The Facts About Uranium

via vimeo.com

(with kittipurrs to my blog-brother, Jim Hoeft at Bearing Drift)

Very interesting video, and quite encouraging.

Look, folks, it's not that I'm so pro-uranium that I want it to go forward no matter what - that's madness! What *I* want is a good, solid, scientific study - oh, like the one being done by the National Academy of Sciences - to determine if it can be done safely.

And, by "safely," I mean "within acceptable risk." The anti-uranium hardcases who insist on 100% safety are being hypocritical. If they truly want 100% safe things, they ought to be sure that they don't drive, don't fly, don't swim, don't cross the road, and don't drink water.

Nothing is 100% safe - even water can be harmful if you consume too much!

Now, if the study comes back and says that the risks are unacceptable, then of course I'm going to be against uranium mining! But the activists who are lobbying so fiercely against mining here at Cole's Hill seem to be blind to the advances in science and mining techniques (they appear to give a 1985 study almost biblical authority), and also like to use red herrings like demonizing the Cole family and insisting that a study funded by Virginia Uranium and conducted by the NAS would, ipso facto, be tilted. I think that's a spurious argument - as does the NAS - as the activists have yet to present solid evidence that this would, indeed, be the case.

Hey, I have a dog in this fight: I live within five miles of Cole's Hill! If the science says it's unsafe to mine, then I want absolutely no part in it! But, if it can be done safely, then this venture will bring much needed jobs and revenue into our impoverished and shrinking population, and be beneficial to solve some of America's energy needs.

By the way, you know what I hear most as an argument against mining uranium around here? "Well, Chatham [the county seat] just doesn't want to become a *snobby sniff* mining town!"

Oh, really?

Would Chatham prefer to become a ghost town? We're losing population because we have few job opportunities for our young folk. We have very little to attract new families to the area, other than our rural beauty, and the kindness and decency of our residents (think "salt of the earth," folks - the people are wonderful here!).

Why not look into uranium as one possibility to revive our county? 

To refuse to even consider it, to dismiss any study (which is what the activist would do) of whether it can be done safely, is equal to the madness of going ahead without counting the cost at all!

C'mon, folks, be reasonable: let's see if it can be done properly before we argue about whether we will do it, OK?

UPDATE: Here's a Pittsylvania resident who took the personal responsibility to do her own research. She decided NOT to be swayed by the emotional impact of the word "RADIATION!!!1!!!!OMG!!!!!" and find out facts. Kudos and brava to her!

Glow-bull vormening in action

The Weather Channel website is sending an alert out for record low temperatures for the Roanoke/Danville area tonight.

Global Warming... I see how it works, now...

The Scream Team and the Mini CougarBots sweep (almost) the FIRST Lego League regionals!

I am so proud of the teams from my Munchkin's small school! They worked hard (OK, yeah, yeah, with more than a little "coaxing"), and each won FOUR First Place awards, including CHAMPIONSHIP in each division! (Make sure you go check out what FIRST Lego League is all about!)

We transported three of our four plaques home, and here they are:

So, congratulations to the Mini CougarBots (the younger, Division 1 team), and all hail my Darling Munchkin's team:

THE SCREAM TEAM!!!

(faces blurred to protect their privacy)

I'm an AUNTIE!!!

My bestest friend here where I live is a dear lady who breeds Arabian horses. Yesterday, her pregnant mare looked like she was ready to deliver an April Fool's Day baby - but the April Fool was on us, and the little one didn't arrive until about 3:30 this morning.

Look at this adorable little guy!

His momma, Chi, is a very good mom and a wonderful brood mare, so this little guy will grow up healthy and sweet natured - although my friend tells me he already has his own attitude going! I'm going to see him sometime tomorrow and take some pictures of my own.

Chi was originally scheduled to deliver on April 15th (and, yeah, all SORTS of tax names were considered, LOL), and this little man just missed April Fool's... I'm sure my friend (who is very creative) will come up with something to reflect that as well as his breeding ;-)

SB525 - the Uranium study bill - tables in the House of Delegates

Yeah, I know, I'm a couple of days late on this; mea culpa - I had guests!

But SB525 was tabled by the House Committee on Rules on Monday, which I find disappointing. It was apparently done by a voice vote, so we don't know which of the committee members voted for and against - that's also disappointing; if something comes up for vote, it ought to be on the record.

Jim Bacon has a post up (wish he'd made it clear where his quote came from - at least, I think he opens with a quote...) and comments:

...it makes sense for Virginia Uranium to do its own research, prepare a mining plan that it believes can extract uranium safely, and present it for consideration. A General Assembly study then could narrow its focus to the specific set of issues raised by the choice of mining methods. [...]

If Virginia Uranium wants to be taken seriously, it needs to put skin in the game by paying geologists and engineers to figure out which mining method would best suit the conditions of Pittsylvania County.

Well, yeah, I can see Jim's point on this, and it's an aspect I hadn't considered. I suppose I got too caught up with the people who were so vehement (and irrational, IMO) in their opposition to ANY sort of study. Of course, another blog-brother of mine, Jerry Fuhrman, considers the issue to be one of willful ignorance:

...we'll not know exactly which delegates were frightened by the notion that the people of Virginia might be exposed to additional knowledge - beyond the impartial and completely balanced study that came out in Jane Fonda's exhaustive work delivered in The Chinda Syndrome - on the subject.

varockstar at Uranium Mining in Virginia is extremely irritated and says

If we don't seize this opportunity to study what may be our economic salvation, then we will be dooming our entire region. This could be the boost we need, folks. This can be a great and wonderful blessing to our area, but we will never know unless we study it.

I feel as if sometimes I am preaching to the choir. The opposition no more wants to hear our side of the story than the man in the moon. They would rather put on their silly hats and parade their outdated half-truths around Richmond. The sad part is, our legislators bought it, and that is truly frightening. I hope those hats are paid for, and I hope you all carpooled to Richmond, because times are only going to get tougher.

Yeah, I hear you! How many times have I heard SCCC folks and their supporters say, "Chatham doesn't want to be a mining town!"? I think I'm going to start replying "I'm sure Chatham would prefer to be a mining town than a ghost town!" After all, a good part of SouthSide has been slowly but steadily losing population, hasn't it?

So, back to the bill: I don't know that "tabled in committee" is in fact the kiss of death for SB525, but maybe Virginia Uranium will now have a clearer vision on what they need to do to get a new, more viable bill drafted.

Good luck, guys...

You want common sense about the uranium issue?

Well then, you ought to make sure that Support An Independent Study is on your RSS feed. Walter Coles, Sr., is listed as one of the authors, and made the initial post, but varockstar (the other listed author) has been doing a great job researching articles, asking good questions, and voicing the benefits Pittsylvania County might reap if the study shows we can mine safely.

I particularly enjoyed Sunday's post, where varockstar took on an editorial from the Danville Register-Bee by Bill Spieden. varockstar says:

First, Speiden contends that the milling site in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (a place where I spent several summers with my sister’s godmother and her family) “has been stabilized…it contains 161,000 cubic yards of capsulated, potentially dangerous radioactive material that will have to be monitored at taxpayers’ expense in perpetuity.” What Mr. Speiden fails to mention is that this monitoring in “perpetuity” also applies to loosely-regulated landfills. How many batteries and aerosol cans and household chemicals have been dumped in our local landfills? Do the workers have a chance to check every bag of trash that is deposited into these landfills? Of course not, and that is why the quality of the environment around landfills is constantly monitored, and it will also be in “perpetuity,” because that trash will not biodegrade in our lifetime.

Make sure you read the whole thing, and put the blog on your feed reader!

More jobs coming to Danville

Well, I'd never heard of this company before, but if they're bringing jobs - and over 800, at that! - I'll welcome them with open arms; our area needs all the jobs we can get!

From the Danville Register-Bee:

A major manufacturer of mattresses and upholstered furniture [Com40] will invest $36.3 million to open a manufacturing plant in Danville, creating 813 jobs. [...]

The manufacturer, Com.40 Ltd, is a private company headquartered in Nowe Skalmierzyce, Poland. Com.40 is a key supplier to Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA. This Com.40 project in Danville will help supply mattresses and upholstery to IKEA stores in North America.

Governor Tim Kaine was supposed to be here for the announcement, but couldn't make it due to the snow at the Danville airport.

But this is good to see! Along with all the business construction in Danville - Pet Smart opened last year, as did Office Depot, and we'll be getting a Target, a Coles', a Sam's Club, among others - this plant will contribute to revitalizing the area and helping our economy.

Now, folks, let's get more businesses in Pittsylvania County, too!