Capital Punishment in Virginia

MoonHowler

From Wikipedia:

The electric chair continued to be solely used until 1994, when legislation was enacted giving inmates the choice of lethal injection or the electric chair, with lethal injection the default method if no choice was made. Six inmates have since opted for the Virginia electric chair; the most recent was Paul Warner Powell March 18, 2010. Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has also stated that he opposes the option of the electric chair, but he did not move to drop it as an option while in office.

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No, you didn’t make a mistake, Senator Hatch

MoonHowler

From Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was heckled for his support of the Wall Street bailout during his Friday appearance at a conservative gathering, another sign the Republican could face trouble earning his party’s nomination for re-election in 2012.

 

During an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Hatch was asked why conservatives should believe him when he discusses federal spending, given his vote in favor of the bailout. That vote has become a litmus test for conservatives and anathema for Republicans running for re-election.

“All I can say is, there aren’t many people who will say I’m sorry. I’m one who will,” said Hatch, who earlier this week met with tea party activists at a town hall-style meeting.

Hatch is looking for support from his party’s conservative base for a re-election bid next year. The 76-year-old will not have it from his fellow Utah senator; Sen. Mike Lee said Friday he won’t endorse Hatch.

No, you didn’t make a mistake, Senator Hatch.  You did the right thing.  That TARP had to happen according to most financial experts.  Why would this audience be so rude?  Sen. Hatch has served for many years.  I am not even sure why he wants to stay in office.  I would tell the rude pigs good bye.  You don’t heckle speakers and that includes ones I don’t like or agree with politically. 

America can start its self improvement campaign by acquiring manners.  The angry crowd got scolded by the moderator.  Perhaps throwing them out of the event would hit home.

Morris Davis: Caesar’s Wife, Meet Ginni Thomas

MoonHowler

Guest Post

Colonel Morris Davis
Executive Director and Counsel, Crimes of War Project
Posted: February 10, 2011 04:27 PM
Huffington Post

Disclaimer: All guest posts are the opinion of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration. M-H

Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, had to be above suspicion. Ginni, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has to be at the center of it.

“The government has no right to tell me who I can do business with” was something I heard when I was an Air Force JAG doing government ethics briefings for civilian spouses of officers serving in command positions. I’d respond, “You’ve got the right to do business with anyone you choose, but your husband doesn’t have a right to be a commander.”

The standards of ethical conduct that apply to federal government employees and members of the armed forces prohibit those serving in leadership roles and decision-making positions from maintaining relationships that create the appearance of a conflict of interest between their official duties and their personal interests, including the personal interests of their spouses and dependent children. The rule is intended to promote public confidence that official decisions are made without partiality or favor due to a financial or other personal stake in the outcome. The civilian wife of a military commander is free to recruit the spouses of her husband’s subordinates to sell Mary Kay or Amway, but her husband will likely lose his job; command is a privilege, not a right.

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Morton Kondracke: “She’s A Joke Within Her Own Party’

Elena

 

From Politico’s On Media blog:

At the Roll Call/CQ election analysis session at the Ronald Reagan Building this morning, Roll Call Executive Editor and Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke blamed Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint for Republican failure to capture the Senate.

“The people who got slapped the hardest in this election — besides Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama — are Jim DeMInt and Sarah Palin,” he said. “Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin are responsible for the fact that the Senate did not go Republican. They’re the ones who are responsible for Christine O’Donnell. They’re the ones who are responsible for Joe Miller in Alaska. They’re the ones who are responsible for Ken Buck in Colorado. They’re the ones who are responsible for Sharron Angle in Nevada.”

Then Kondrake discussed whether Palin could be the 2012 nominee: “She’s a joke even within her own party,” Kondrake said. “The idea that she would be the presidential nominee is unthinkable.”

Respond. How far off base is this non-partisan discussion?

House Republicans are finding out it isn’t so easy

MoonHowler

After 2 years of hounding Nancy Peloski and President Obama, the NY Times reports trouble in River City, at least as far as the House Republican majority goes:

Under pressure to make deeper spending cuts and blindsided by embarrassing floor defeats, House Republican leaders are quickly discovering the limits of control over their ideologically driven and independent-minded new majority.

For the second consecutive day, House Republicans on Wednesday lost a floor vote due to a mini-revolt, this time over a plan to demand a repayment from the United Nations. Earlier in the day, members of the party’s conservative bloc used a closed-door party meeting to push the leadership to go well beyond its plans to trim about $40 billion from domestic spending and foreign aid this year, demanding $100 billion or more

On Tuesday  the new Republican leadership was forced to pull a trade assistance bill off the floor and the Patriot Act failed to be extended.   When asked about all the bumps in the road, House Majority Leader John Boehner responded:

Speaker John A. Boehner conceded that the fledgling majority was encountering turbulence. “We have been in the majority four weeks,” Mr. Boehner said. “We are not going to be perfect every day.”

After all the criticism of the other guys, the Republican Majority needs to get it right.  What will the next ‘swing and a miss’ be?  These folks are finding out that the easy part of the job is to sit on the sidelines and criticize, ridicule, and bring down others.   Those who were called RINOs hopefully are sitting back laughing now, especially those who lost their seats because it looked soooo easy.

These guys get the same break from me that they offered the other guys.  I don’t recall President Obama getting 4 weeks before the criticism began.  I think that started on day 2. 

 Welcome to Washington.  Now get with the program!

4 Hours from Discovery to Resignation

MoonHowler

Speaker John Boehner said there would be zero tolerance for scandals on his watch.  Guess he wasn’t kidding.  It only took 4 hours from discovery of a really stupid stunt on the part of  Rep. Chris Lee  (R-NY) until he resigned:

“It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.
“The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately.”

 

That’s pretty amazing. Most senatorial and congressional indiscretion takes months, sometimes years, to unearth. Of course, Lee was pretty stupid. He sent a picture of himself shirtless to some woman in an ISO on Craig’s List. Additionally, he lied about his age, his marital status and his job. 

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What is an I-9 Audit?

MoonHowler

Recently news of Chipotle being investigated by ICE hit many local, state, and national news sources.  Chipotle is an upscale Mexican grill who has been under the ICE microscope for about a year.  The inspections are not random and have come about as a result of investigation and intelligence gathering. 

Chipotle, unlike many other fast food chains like Burger King, Subway  and McDonalds, is all corporate . Burger King, Subway, McDonalds and many other chains are often franchise so the hiring onous falls on the local owner of the franchise.  What Chipotle has been undergoing is what is known as an I-9 Audit.  What exactly is an I-9 audit?

According to Reuters:

WHAT IS A FORM I-9?

 -An I-9 is an employment eligibility verification form. All U.S. employers must complete and retain an I-9 for each individual they hire in the United States, citizens and noncitizens alike. On the form, the employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity documents an employee presents to determine if the person can work legally in the country.

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Glenn Beck draws criticism from Bill Kristol

MoonHowler

Bill Kristol laughs off the Glenn Beck phenomena. Beck doesn’t like it one little bit and goes into nasty mode at Kristol, basically stating that he is ill-informed and outdated.

Does Beck ever back off of anything? He and Palin both joust at the established conservatives like Bill Kristol and Barbara Bush. How smart is that? Both Barbara Bush and Kristol has withstood the test of time.

Gang Members Indicted for Murder of Mickey Hernandez

MoonHowler

From News and Messenger:

A grand jury in Prince William Circuit Court has indicted a Fairfax teen on a murder charge for the November stabbing death of 15-year-old Miguel “Mickey” Hernandez in Manassas.

Boris Alfred Juarez Ascencio, 18, of Blake Lane in Fairfax, is charged with first-degree murder for the Nov. 19 stabbing.

According to court documents, Juarez, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has been certified to stand trial as an adult.

In court documents, witnesses said that Juarez stabbed Hernandez several times as he walked home from school on Bartow Street.

Another teen, 18-year-old Mauricio Martinez of Manassas, has also been charged in Hernandez’s death.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, Martinez and Juarez were both members of the criminal street gang of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

Witnesses said Martinez identified Hernandez as a member of a rival gang and then Juarez stabbed him, according to police and prosecutors.

Police and Hernandez’s family members have said he was not affiliated with a gang.

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Beware of Those Rascally Koch Brothers

MoonHowler

From the Daily Beast:

The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have moved to the center of the Republican establishment, donating to and guiding members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Koch Industries was the largest oil and gas donor to members of the committee—larger even than Exxon Mobil. Then the Koch brothers got the panel’s commitment in writing, with nine of the 12 new Republican members signing a pledge to oppose the Obama administration’s attempts to regulate greenhouse gases. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kans.) launched an aerospace company with investments from a Koch subsidiary, and his chief of staff is a former Koch Industries lawyer. Jeremy Symons of the National Wildlife Federation says the change on the committee is “like night and day.” “Now the committee treats the Clean Air Act and the EPA as if they are the enemy,” he says. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) says it’s just the reversal of when Former Chairman Henry Waxman “stacked the committee with liberal environmentalists.”

So is ‘stacking the deck with liberal environmentalists’ worse than billionaires pouring money into campaigns of those on a congressional committee?  Should the Koch brothers be determining our energy policies?  Koch Industries  has much to gain from their infusion of cash.  Koch Industries, based in Witchita  is a multifaceted company with many different products, from ranch products to roofing to energy resources. 

These folks bear watching.  According to the Los Angeles Times:

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No Raises for PWC school board employees for the 2nd year

MoonHowler

Superintendent Walts , in his address to the school board Wednesday night said, “For the second straight year, PWCS employees would not receive salary step increases, according to the fiscal 2012 budget proposal. And though there won’t be pay raises, the proposed budget to the school board will include a onetime, 1 percent bonus this will be paid to school employees sometime in the second half of 2012. “Since we wouldn’t have money for raises,”Walts said, “[the bonus] was a way we could do something in terms of compensation for every employee.”

I believe it has been 3 years since the non-school board employees have had a raise. They no longer have any 401k match.   There seems to be this feeling that government employees should take their lumps and not complain.  Perhaps if the public attitudes were different, getting no raise might be more palatable.  These same folks are also being told that their pension is costing a fortune and they will be paying for it themselves, if the legislation goes through. 

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Conservative Groups Boycott CPAC

MoonHowler

ABC News:

Several conservative groups and individuals plan to boycott the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which takes place later this month  (Feb. 10-12)  in Washington, DC.  Why are the groups boycotting and who are they?

From speakers like Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to panels on “How Political Correctness is Harming America’s Military” and “Reagan at 100: Role Model for the Next Generation,” the agenda for the three-day gathering is chock full of personalities and events designed to fire up the conservative base.

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Well, isn’t that special! Could it be…SATAN?

MoonHowler

She’s back, with a vengeance.  This time the Church Lady has met her match, as she gets a little warm over Justin Bieber.  Dana Carvey hosted SNL last night.

 

Mr. Mouth is moving but Mr. Brain doesn’t quite know what it’s saying.
We all know a ‘church lady’ but no one says Church Lady like Dana Carvey. Its hard to believe he is 55 years old now and that he left SNL in 1993.  Last night Jon Lovitz appeared briefly, speaking of Satan or perhaps I should use his more formal name, Mephistopheles.