Day 13

By DCH | August 19, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections | 1 Comment

Prayer and Pledge -

Then, my Congressman, Frank Wolf, started day 13 of the Republican revolt by representing his constituents well:

““We need to come back from recess to have an up or down vote to send a message to the rest of the world that American is going to become energy independent.”

We are tired of the high prices, Madame Speaker. Given the 70% increase in gasoline prices we’ve experienced, we don’t want to see what how much heating oil will go up under your speakership, Ms. Pelosi. Give us a break and just let Congress vote on developing American energy.

I know your pals at the Sierra Club think we would all be “better off without cheap gas” but we respectfully dissent — and we think we are better judges of what’s good for us than Ms. Pelosi and her fellow San Francisco leftist activists.

Kaine Holding Line Of Succession Meeting

By Jason Kenney | August 19, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections | 4 Comments

The Palmetto Scoop is reporting that Gov. Tim Kaine is holding an emergency meeting to discuss matters when he is selected to be Vice President:

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is set to announce his running mate within the next few days and now The Palmetto Scoop has learned that he may have already settled on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

A source inside the beltway informed me that high ranking officials throughout Virginia were recently summoned to the governor’s office for an emergency meeting which reportedly involved discussions on the line of succession if and when Kaine steps down to become Obama’s running mate.

The officials were mandated to leave an out-of-state conference and return to the state capitol in Richmond immediately.

Due to the confidential nature of the meeting, details are scarce but the source said that either Obama will choose Kaine, or Kaine was given the impression that he would be chosen.

Kaine however told reporters Monday, “It has been really nice to be mentioned, my mom loves it. I never thought it was very likely, for a variety of reasons”

Such a meeting would make sense even if you were being seriously considered, as to ease any issues that may pop up after an announcement. While this doesn’t mean Kaine is a lock, it’s still quite interesting to hear.

Barack Obama will be in Martinsville and Lynchburg tomorrow and Richmond on Thursday (maybe even Chesapeake), pending any changes due to a Vice President announcement.

Your taxes to study social status of ants

By Brian Kirwin | August 19, 2008
Filed Under Government and Economics | 6 Comments

I almost fell out of my chair when I read this.

“the scientists conducted paternity tests on 1,200 ants”

For what? Child support?

there is only one social trajectory for males - they “do nothing but mate and die”

Oh, the life!

Perhaps both genetics and nutrition can fuel a hormonal response that determines whether an ant develops into a worker or a queen, the scientists suggest.

It was at this point where I screamed “WHO CARES????” We have a giant budget deficit, a huge national debt, and a war on terrorists who want to kill us, and we are spending money on studying what determines the pecking order of ants!

John McCain, save us from this idiotic spending!

Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf goes negative

By Brian Kirwin | August 19, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections | 7 Comments

She’s the incumbent. She’s the only directly-elected Mayor Virginia Beach ever had. Why is she going negative in August?

Mayor Meyera Oberndorf took her first swipe at a key challenger Monday, saying former Vice Mayor Will Sessoms should return a $10,000 campaign donation from health care giant Amerigroup. (Virginian-Pilot)

Meyera is being outraised $428,112 to $22,870, so I guess it must be easier to ask Sessoms to give money back than to raise some herself. Funny how things change….let’s shoot back a few years.

“I’m delighted to share the podium today with Governor Warner and Mr. McWaters as we celebrate AMERIGROUP Corporation’s phenomenal growth and continuing success in this great city,” said Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf. “When we grow them in Virginia Beach, we grow them right – and we as a city do all that we can to nurture fine corporate citizens and powerful economic engines such as AMERIGROUP.” (press release)

Fine corporate citizens until campaign time, I guess.

Irony

By DCH | August 18, 2008
Filed Under Off-Beat and Catch-All | 5 Comments

According to the American Heritage Dictionary:

i·ro·ny n. pl. i·ro·nies
Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.

The National Education Association’s current position on Social Security could be listed in the dictionary as an example of irony.

The NEA is having its members send Congress a message opposing mandatory Social Security for public employees. They argue, and I quote:

Mandatory social security on top of [what I already pay into my state's retirement plan] would overburden my existing financial situation.

Mandatory coverage would weaken existing state and local retirement plans that often offer benefits superior to Social Security.

Mandatory coverage would also increase the tax burden on public sector employers, eventually leading to reductions in the number of new hires, limits on employee wage increases, reduced cost of living increases for retirees, and reductions in other benefits such as health care.

Stopping mandatory Social Security for public employees is only one of the NEA’s priorities. Would you like to guess what another one is? Read more

Freedom to Protest?

By DCH | August 18, 2008
Filed Under Government and Economics | Leave a Comment

Of course you are free to protest in China, officials say. They even set up 3 demonstration zones for the purpose. Funny thing though - nobody wants to protest such a wonderful government.

It’s kind of like pre-war democracy in Iraq — you could vote for whoever you wanted to — as long as you wanted to vote for Saddam.

Would be protesters had to apply to the government for protest permits first — and they were never heard from again. Apparently, they changed their mind.

The NYT has this story from Beijing: Read more

Obama To Announce Vice President This Week?

By Jason Kenney | August 18, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections | 4 Comments

Drudge is reporting that the New York Times has found out that Barack Obama will announce his Vice President pick as early as tomorrow:

Obama has set an elaborate roll-out to announce his decision that will begin with an early morning e-mail to supporters, perhaps as early as Tuesday, Zeleny and Adam Nagourney have been told.

A top source close to Caroline Kennedy tells DRUDGE — the pick is more likely to come early Wednesday morning.

Wednesday Obama is hitting Martinsville with Mark Warner (by invitation only) in the morning and then Lynchburg with Jim Webb (open to the public). Thursday will supposedly see Obama in Richmond.

A Vice President announcement from Obama in the next two days that finds him spending an awful lot of time in Virginia might be a good sign for Tim Kaine’s chances.

UPDATE: The NYT article is up:

If all goes according to plan, the announcement will be made with text and e-mail messages to supporters early in the morning, in time to capture coverage on the morning news shows and take advantage of a full day’s news cycle. Mr. Obama and his new running mate will than begin a cross-country tour; current plans call for them to on the trail together for most of the time between the day of the announcement and when Mr. Obama arrives in Denver, a week from Wednesday.

Mr. Obama’s schedule calls for him to awake Tuesday morning in Orlando, Fla., and by the end of the day be in Raleigh, N.C. By Wednesday, he is scheduled to be in Virginia. The Obama campaign has cautioned against reading anything into his schedule, saying it could be changed in an instant to accommodate the plan to introduce the running mate.

Aides said the announcement would come at the earliest on Wednesday morning, and no later than Friday.

Virginia Beach Scores!!

By Brian Kirwin | August 18, 2008
Filed Under Media and Pop Culture | 3 Comments

Two goals by Virginia Beach’s own Angela Hucles sent the United States women’s soccer team into the finals with a come-from-behind victory over Japan.

The Norfolk Academy and University of Virginia graduate has done us proud!

Missing from the Times-Dispatch?

By Jane | August 18, 2008
Filed Under Media and Pop Culture | 14 Comments

That breathtaking answer given by Sen. Obama to “at what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” - “Well, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.” (CNN transcript here). Leaving aside for now what a bad answer that was, it is interesting to NOT see it at all in the Times-Dispatch, at least not that I can find. It is in the Washington Post, at least mentioned in an opinion piece. I could be wrong - if a reader can find it online on inrich.com, let the reader please comment with that link. If it isn’t there, why? To everyone who hears it, the answer seems memorably bad. Yet somehow the paper of record in Virginia’s capitol city seems to think it doesn’t merit a mention. Read more

Mr. Just Meets Evil

By DCH | August 18, 2008
Filed Under Government and Economics | 4 Comments

This week’s edition of The New Republic features Richard Just’s insightful article:

The Truth Will Not Set You Free
It Happened While We Watched -
Why We Didn’t Save Darfur

I won’t say I’m a frequent fan of TNR but this article ought to be read. Both ends of the political spectrum can benefit from Just’s jaded, yet morally sensitive and realistic, look at the failure of the free world to keep its “never again” promise. And both are skewered in his analysis.

On the side of the right, there is a general lack of moral leadership - with a few notable exceptions (what have Republicans in power done to stop the genocide being perpetrated by the Janjaweed?).

On the side of the left, in which Mr. Just would readily include himself, something else is wrong:

Genocide really is different from other foreign policy crises, in that it will not wait. Either you stop genocide immediately or you fail to stop it. And when it came to the question of troops, the Darfur activists were split. Many were uncomfortable with the use of force. Cheadle and Prendergast are candid about this: “Many of us peace and human rights advocates are rightly reluctant about the use of force. We need to get over it. There is such a thing as evil in this world, and sometimes the only way to confront evil is through the judicious use of military force.” Amen, as long as “judicious” also means effective.

“There is such a thing as evil in this world.”

There is indeed. And a foreign policy of talking, however wonderfully idealistic, does not stop evil. Read more

Are tax incentives as effective as assumed?

By Jeremy Hinton | August 17, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections, Government and Economics | 2 Comments

In the last week or so a GAO study made the rounds regarding the number of companies paying no corporate taxes in the US in recent years. From the article:

Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

While there was obviously a lot of noise from the left questioning why we should look at cutting corporate taxes, and from the right citing effects like the Laffer curve, one issue I saw little discussion on was how this impacted the effectiveness of tax-break based corporate incentives. Currently Obama and McCain have a number of proposals favoring more market based approaches of using tax breaks and credits to influence corporate policies. However, if a large number of US companies currently (through legit or questionable finances) have zero-tax liability anyway, how does the carrot of a “tax-break” offer them any incentive to modify their behavior? I realize this is a bit of a generalization, but on a basic level, you need to pay taxes for the offer of a tax-break to be an incentive. So if your incentives are all but useless for a good number of companies, is such a policy as effective as we would assume?

Kobe vs. Obama: Who’s the Deeper Celeb?

By Chris | August 17, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections | 3 Comments

This weekend Team USA basketball player Kobe Bryant was interviewed by NBC’s Chris Collinsworth about playing in the Olympics. The LA Lakers star displayed tremendous poise and confidence in describing his pride at wearing the colors of his nation. Bryant’s words, delivered in a nation with which the United States has had a tenuous relationship at times, seemed to me in stark contrast with the type of sentiments expressed by many Democrats on much friendlier soil. Read more

Virginian-Pilot blasts Obama’s energy plan

By Brian Kirwin | August 17, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections, Media and Pop Culture | 4 Comments

I know they pledged not to endorse in this year’s Presidential race. We’re starting to see why.

Start with Democrat Barack Obama’s signature proposal, a $1,000 per-family rebate financed by a tax on oil company profits.

As satisfying as such financial vengeance might be, experience proves that windfall profits taxes don’t work and have magnificently disruptive effects on the marketplace.

Worse, Obama’s new proposal - the very definition of pandering - puts him in the position of calling for a gigantic tax on an industry for which he voted huge tax breaks in 2005. Sen. John McCain, the GOP standard-bearer, voted against them. (Virginian-Pilot)

We’re starting to see that when the gloss and shine of “yes we can” and “hope and change” become defined by proposals and policies, Obama’s a flop.

Snub of the Century?

By Brian Kirwin | August 15, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections | 9 Comments

Two people were out campaigning for Barack Obama before practically anyone else was.

But Oprah’s not going to be vice-president.

Tim Kaine, however, travelled across the country and was a proud, public supporter of Obama way back when it looked like a shoo-in for Hillary. Kaine gave the Democratic response to the President’s State of the Union address. Kaine left Richmond while the General Assembly was in town to help Obama campaign. Kaine is out with his face in TV cameras defending Obama while Obama snoozes on vacation. Biden isn’t. Nunn isn’t. Bayh isn’t.

If Obama doesn’t choose Kaine as his running mate, it has to be considered the snub of the century. Kaine stuck his neck out for Obama repeatedly before he became the “Chosen One.” Would Obama reward such support with a stiffarm?

Obama In Richmond Thursday

By Jason Kenney | August 15, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns and Elections, Media and Pop Culture | 8 Comments

Next Thursday will see a Barack Obama event in Richmond:

To conjecture, of course, would be easy. Gov. Tim Kaine lives and works in Richmond… but

Virginia’s a swing state; it’s not unusual for Obama to campaign there. Or maybe it’s an event for Michelle Obama.

For some reason, I don’t think this is IT — THE vice presidential announcement. It could happen somewhere else… on another day..– Wednesday — in another state… and not involve anything related to Virginia. Maybe Richmond is a stop on the vice presidential tour — a tour that begins elsewhere the day before.

But: unless he’s planning a convention week surprise, Obama has to announce his vice presidential nominee next week.

Both Tim Kaine and Mark Warner have seen a bit of vetting by Democrats lately:

One of the sources said that the Obama campaign had conducted the tests; the other source would not disclose the identity of the organization conducting the focus groups but did agree to confirm the results.

The sources do not have direct ties to either Kaine or Warner, to the Democratic National Committee or to the Obama campaign.

They said that the focus group was held in a conference room in Norfolk, a city in Virginia’s eastern Tidewater region, a huge swing area of the state.

Warner came off well; Kaine did not, with respondents saying that he lacks substantive accomplishments and kisses up too much to Obama.

This may be more related to the keynote address (which Warner will be delivering) than the vice president slot.

So what does this mean? An awful lot of speculation more than anything else. This could be Obama coming to help his chances in Virginia. Or it could be Obama revealing the audacity of Obama/Kaine ‘08. Or it could be a big ol’ pat on the back of Mark Warner so his lead over Gilmore can break the 30 point barrier.

The last option is the one that makes the most sense. Obama’s success in this state will rely heavily on the coattails of Mark Warner. Boosting Warner with keynote addresses and campaign appearances boosts Obama’s chances. Tim Kaine could just be along for the ride.

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