Month: December 2013

Rep. Frank Wolf has announced that he will retire at the end of the term.  Democrats are dancing with glee at the prospects of his seat going to one of their own.  Wolf’s announcement comes as a surprise as most people thought  he would run for his 18th session in Congress.  According to the Washington Post:

Rep. Frank Wolf announced Tuesday that he would not run for reelection in 2014, bringing an end to a three-decade career in Congress and instantly making his Northern Virginia seat a prime November battleground.

The 74-year-old Republican’s decision came as a surprise — as recently as last week, leaders in both parties fully expected him to run for an 18th term. But in a statement issued by his office, Wolf said he planned to continue his longtime work on human rights and religious freedom issues.

“As a follower of Jesus, I am called to work for justice and reconciliation, and to be an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves,” Wolf said. “I plan to focus my future work on human rights and religious freedom – both domestic and international – as well as matters of the culture and the American family.”

Read More

Washingtonpost.com:

After the first day of the recount in Virginia’s election for attorney general, Democrat Mark R. Herring appeared to have widened his narrow lead over Republican Mark D. Obenshain with a net gain of 91 votes in Fairfax County, officials said.

The preliminary results injected another round of uncertainty into a race that Obenshain led on election night but that swung to Herring during the subsequent topsy-turvy days when election officials canvassed the tallies and discovered numerous errors.

Volunteers labored away in three jurisdictions where recounting began Monday in the closest statewide election in Virginia history. While most of the state will start counting Tuesday, Fairfax started Monday because of its large size — and Alexandria and Chesapeake did so because their voting equipment requires them to recount ballots by hand.

More than 2.2 million people cast votes in the down-to-the-wire election, which led to canvasses and some controversy before the State Board of Elections declared Herring the winner by just 165 votes. That tiny margin entitled Obenshain to a government-funded recount.

Read More

Bite me, Megyn Kelly. It’s official. Santa IS black and I can prove it. I saw it on SNL. Kenan Thompson outted himself as Santa.

Kanye West makes  the sweeping claim  he’s risking his life like a ‘police officer or a soldier in war’ just  because he could slip while dancing onstage.  Now that is just taking one’s self a little too seriously.  Oh let’s be blunt here.  Kanye  has an overly inflated opinion of not only himself but his own importance in the grand scheme of things.  He is a self-aggrandizing horse’s ass.
According to the dailymail.com:

Kanye West says performing on his Yeezus tour  is similar to going to war.

The 36-year-old claimed in a recent interview  that he is risking his life onstage and compared his musical antics to that of a  police officer or soldier.

The rapper explained that he could ‘slip’  during one of his complex routines on stage and that he is putting his ‘life at  risk, literally’.

‘I’m putting my life at risk, literally!’

Kanye went on to explain: ‘When I think about when I’m on the Can’t Tell Me Nothing, and Coldest Winter moment, like that mountain goes really, really high.

Read More

It’s getting weirder….
Read More

Washingtonpost.com:

After years of placating conservative groups that repeatedly undermined his agenda, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) took direct aim at some of his tea party critics Thursday, accusing them of working against the interests of the Republican Party.

Calling the groups “misleading” and without “credibility,” Boehner pointed to the string of bipartisan deals that passed the House on its last legislative day of 2013 as the sort of “common ground” that should provide a new path for congressional work.

The House voted 332 to 94 on Thursday night to approve a two-year budget outline that would reduce the chance of another government shutdown and end the cycle of crisis budgeting that has been the scourge of Washington for much of the past three years.

With his assault on outside groups that have opposed him time and again over the past three years, Boehner gave voice to a growing feeling among congressional Republicans that their nominal allies at advocacy groups and think tanks have turned into puritanical partisans whose posture on many issues has undermined the GOP’s standing on Capitol Hill. Boehner’s remarks came amid increasingly strident clashes between establishment Republicans and Washington-based groups that claim the tea party banner, most prominently Heritage Action for America, the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks.

The 16-day federal government shutdown in October, largely orchestrated by groups such as Heritage Action, became a pivot point for many longtime Republican lawmakers to begin pushing back against more conservative newcomers.

Read More

usatoday.com:

The Associated Press also reported the allegation Wednesday, saying that three sign language experts who watched the broadcast said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages.

“It was horrible, an absolute circus, really really bad,” Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter, told the AP. “Only he can understand those gestures.”

USA TODAY was not able to independently confirm the allegations, which if proved true would be an enormous embarrassment to South African officials at a time when the nation is looking to celebrate the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela.

South Africa’s government said it is preparing a statement.

Collins Chabane, one of South Africa’s two presidency ministers, said the government is continuing to investigate the matter.

Read More

I would hope our presidents would all shake hands with world leaders. It’s just what civilized people do.  Raul Castro Castro is a world leader, of sorts.  Why wear political differences on one’s shoulder?  Snubbing someone is no way to establish communication.
John McCain seems to forget about Muammar Gaddafi. Didn’t we bomb him? Didn’t he kill Americans? Thought so. Convenient amnesia.

Then there is the matter of the selfie with a couple of heads of state. Who cares. Seriously…who really cares. This is the age of technology. I am glad to see a president who doesn’t feel he is too good to take a selfie with other world leaders. How very unstaged. The argument that it was a funeral? Not really. It was a memorial service to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela. There was lots of dancing, clapping and celebration of life.

The haters just all need to change the channel.

Is it cold enough for you yet?  It is still fall.  Winter is a week or so away.

Cargo gave us the temperature at Antarctica: minus 138 degrees.  Now THAT is cold!

Tomorrow is supposed to be really frigid and very windy.

Is there a secret to combatting this weather?  Wasn’t it just the other week that we were all out in shirt sleeves, enjoying the last warmth of the year?

If this is December, what on earth is in store for us in January and February?

I am trying to figure out who the five are out there in their underwear…hiding behind their computer screens of course.  Damn Corey!  I sputtered my tea all over the screen when he said that.

Actually, this was one of the more informative BOCS meetings.  There is hope for reducing class sizes.  I think they are slowly getting it that they have to increase taxes and that even the 2.5% might not be enough to address all the concerns.

This board has been laboring under the impression that you can just move things around and you will somehow have enough money. It doesn’t work that way.  Only Jenkins and Principi seem to get that part.  Of course, Jenkins and Principi  don’t have their own party trying to tea party them and feed on their remains.  I think that having to dodge the tea party bullet all the time creates the  mentality that forces  people go into denial about dollars and  cents and sense.
Read More

Richmond Times Dispatch:

After pushing unsuccessfully for a constitutional amendment for automatic restoration of rights, McDonnell eventually made the process for nonviolent felons as automatic as he thought it could be through executive power.

He dramatically streamlined the process and has restored the rights of more than 7,500 felons who had completed their terms.

Before leaving office on January 11, 2014, Governor Bob McDonnell has proposed funds totally more than $3 million in his budget for prisoner re-entry and for restoration of civil rights.

The governor’s office says his proposed budget will include:

• $533,517 in each year of the two-year budget to enable the Department of Corrections to provide temporary lodging for hard-to-place inmates upon their release.

Read More

Since everyone is asking, lets see what the fox really says.  Meanwhile, no gekkering over this:

insidenova.com:

As of 9 a.m., Dominion Virginia Power and the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative reported about 90,000 power outages in Northern Virginia.

Most of the Dominion outages were in Fairfax County with 38,265 and Prince William County with 10,798.

Most of NOVEC’s 24,884 outages were in Prince William County with 21,986.

NOVEC spokesman Mike Curtis said a major Dominion Virginia Power transmission line failed, causing most of the outages.

“The Dominion line delivers power to eight NOVEC substations in Prince William and Stafford counties. Dominion Virginia Power is aware of the outage and is working to restore the transmission line to service, but is currently unable to provide an estimated restoration time,” Curtis said in a news release.

In addition to the failed line, there are dozens of outages due to icing on trees and power lines.

Read More

Washingtonpost.com:

While Susan Allen called for moderation on social issues, others — including outspoken minister E.W. Jackson, who lost the race for lieutenant governor last month — urged fellow conservatives to defend the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and stand strong opposing abortion. Others affirmed the party’s decision to select its candidate for the U.S. Senate next year at a convention rather than in a primary — a decision likely to result in a more-conservative nominee who might struggle to defeat incumbent Mark R. Warner (D) in increasingly moderate Virginia.

Susan Allen had more advice for the GOP:

Read More

From Ted Cruz site on Facebook::

Nelson Mandela will live in history as an inspiration for defenders of liberty around the globe. He stood firm for decades on the principle that until all South Africans enjoyed equal liberties he would not leave prison himself, declaring in his autobiography, ‘Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.’ Because of his epic fight against injustice, an entire nation is now free.

We mourn his loss and offer our condolences to his family and the people of South Africa.

That sounds perfectly appropriate and something along the lines that any U.S. Senator ought to be saying about an international, respected leader such as Nelson Mandela. Apparently a whole lot of people took issue with Senator Cruz’s statement on the passing of Mandela.

Read More