No, Governor McDonnell: Please Don't Sign It

Well, it appears that little Dickie Saslaw blinked, and was forced to alter his extreme political gerrymander.

Nevertheless, as my friend Greg Letiecq observes, "Gerrymandering is OK if parties agree how to do it."  Here's Greg's descriptions of the districts --- five of them!  Count 'em!  Five! --- covering Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park:

The new proposed 28th district, for example, stretches from Bull Run Mountain all the way to Westmoreland State Park and at one points is only a few hundred feet wide where Rt. 215 crosses into Fauquier County.  The 29th district inkblot that was so egregious to RPV a few weeks ago is unchanged, snaking from Stonewall Golf Club to Manassas Park and then to Dumfries.  Traversing the proposed 36th District still requires a boat as it meanders from Mount Vernon up the Potomac River towards Widewater State Park in Stafford County.   The 37th District picks up a slice of Prince William County in Yorkshire along Rt. 28 nearly up to the Manassas Park city line that puts this portion of a Prince William County precinct in with Lorton.  There’s so much that hasn’t been fixed in this plan it’ll make your head spin.

Now, I don't agree with Greg that the new plan is "litigation bait of the highest order."  And while I probably know a little more about litigation than Greg, it certainly is not in the context of election law.  Maybe he's right.

Nevertheless, the average senatorial district in the Commonwealth is right around 200,000 souls.  With a population of 448,000 and change in the latest census, PWC, Manassas, and Manassas Park should have a total of two complete districts, with about a fourth of a third district.  But five districts?!?!

It should, and perhaps will, occur to the Governor and his advisors that the author of this plan --- Senator George Barker, D-WaPo ... er, Lorton/Lake Ridge, submitted the initial plan --- simply desires to split and/or punish jurisdictions which collectively gave the Governor a margin of approximately 15,000 votes in his victory in 2009.

Certainly, this confirms what some of us have known for years: any Prince William County resident who votes for George Barker should have his head examined.

Some of the problems of the initial plan may have been solved, and the new plan, which does more to protect existing incumbents, may have passed by a veto-proof majority.  And it is reported that Governor McDonnell intends to sign it into law.

Nevertheless, Governor McDonnell should keep faith with the overwhelming majorities in Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park, who helped to put him into office, and veto this gerrymandered monstrosity.

It's Kinda Funny...

that Virginia's moonbatosphere has thus far had more to say about President Barry's release (finally!) of his long-form birth certificate than do the Conservatives they are attempting to smear.  See here, and here, and here.

I've long thought this was a non-issue, since there is little doubt that, were there any there there, power-hungry Hillary Clinton and her investigators would have brought conclusive information forward during the Democrat primaries to conclusively destroy then-Senator Barry.  This should end the debate, and I suspect that it's been kept alive by the Obamorons themselves as a method of smearing Conservatives.

Whether it will end the debate remains to be seen.


UPDATE: and here, and here, and here.

UPDATE II: and here.

An Apt Observation

While the article is about Paul Krugman, The Economist (emphasis added) is clearly speaking to the general attitudes of the far Left, seen so often in Virginia's moonbatosphere:

this sort of psychologising diagnosis of strong political conviction often serves as a cheap, supremely condescending trick for pathologising and thus dismissing those with whom we disagree.  A good deal of work on the psychology of conservatism is like this.  The motivating question, "What the hell is wrong with these people?" takes it for granted that there is something wrong with "these people," and thus that disagreement with them is based not on a reasonable difference of opinions among intelligent people of good will, but rather on some sort of deep-seated defect of character or cognition in the "other" insusceptible to correction through civilised discourse.

While I would have used American spellings, I couldn't have said it better myself.  I wish I had said this.

Rank Hypocrisy

With the tax deadline yesterday comes the occasion of finding out how much taxes are being paid by President Barry and his Vice President.

And with all of the presidential rhetoric --- well, OK: rhetoric from the President --- about how "the rich" should pay more, or their "fair share," we have occasion to consider just how much extra the nation's two highest-ranking election officials sent in.  After all, we have suffered thro ... put up w ... listened to more than two years of President Barry telling us that the rich wo uldn't mind surrendering more of their income to the government.

And by any measure, President Barry and his wife qualify as "rich": last year, they reported nearly $1.8 million in 2010, and on that income, paid $466,104 in taxes.


One would expect that, given his rhetoric, one would find prominently discussed the additional contribution offered to the Federal treasury by President Barry and his wife.  That, perhaps, they declined to take a $30,000 mortgage-interest deduction, or a deduction for an admirable $245,075 in contributions to 36 different charities.

(cue crickets chirping)

As usual, the reality of the far Left doesn't match their sanctimonious rhetoric.

Color Me Surprised

Not content to dismiss anyone who is not a mindless Obamabot as "heartless," or a "fanatic," the children at Blow Me, Virg ... er, "Blue Virginia" have disinterred Ayn Rand, dusted her off, and slapped her around a little bit.

Which should be taken just as seriously as ... well, just about everything else they say.

After all, these people know "crazy."

Creating The Illusion Of Support

The moonbatosphere reallllly hates Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart.  After all, he has made substantial steps toward addressing the problems caused by illegal aliens at the local level.  According to the far Left, making sure lawbreakers don't get away with it makes Stewart a "bully."

Perhaps more seriously, he has held the line on taxes and government spending, something that his predecessor, Repubmocrat Sean Connaughton, couldn't manage to do in good times, posturing as a tax reducer when, in good times, average home values were increasing.  Connaughton reduced tax rates, but of course, increase assessments meant that the average homeowner's tax bill increased by more than 60% during Connaughton's tenure, enough to support his profligate spending spree.  Then, of course, Connaughton got out of Dodge before he had to make the tough choices made by his successor.

The far Left is running Dr. Babur Lateef, a local opthalmologist, against Stewart in this cycle, and at least one far-Left website is crowing that "Babur Lateef Nearly Matches Corey Stewart in 1Q11 Fundraising."

Wow.  This sounds serious.

Until you look at the real numbers.  Lateef reports total contributions of $146,894 during the reporting period.

But of this number, $10,000 comes from ... Babur Lateef, M.D.

Of course, that's OK: a candidate should put his own money where his mouth is.

Then there are three contributions totaling $10,533 from Advanced Opthalmology, Inc., in Woodbridge, Virginia.  And who is the principal in the eeeevil corporation?  Well, it appears to be ... Babur Lateef, M.D.!

So that's a total of $20,533, or nearly 14% of the total, from Dr. Lateef himself.

Then there are the out-of-state donations, totaling a whopping $60,850.  To be fair, some appear to be from family members (other "Lateefs"), but many are not from people who are readily identifiable as members of Dr. Lateef's family, i.e., those with the same surname.  Nevertheless, fully 41.42% of Dr. Lateef's donations are from individuals residing in West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Georgia, and Texas.  At least one donation even came from California!

I suppose Chairman Corey Stewart should be flattered that the far Left's enmity for him extends so far.

Then there are the other donations from outside of Prince William County.  Donations from other places in Virginia total $44,850, or 30.53% of Dr. Lateef's donations.

In total, then, of the $146,894 in donations reported by Dr. Lateef, more than 70% come from outside of the County, and more than 40%, from out of state.  And let us not forget the nearly 15% that come from the candidate himself.

In toto, then, excluding money from the candidate himself, from out of state, and out of the County, Dr. Lateef has raised only $21,161, or less than 15%, from County residents or businesses within the County.  Many of the last appear to be from other medical professionals, medical suppliers, and even one of Dr. Lateef's employees (if Lateef were a Republican, no doubt the far Left would be screaming about how this individual was browbeaten into contributing, or some other nonsensical charge).

With these numbers, my guess is that many, perhaps most, of the "Friends of Babur Lateef" couldn't identify Prince William County on a map.  And to borrow a phrase from the moonbatosphere, one has to wonder whether the fact that most of Lateef's donations come from out of the County will prove to be "a disservice to Prince William County's more than 400,000 residents."

Why Congress Will And Should Be Paid

Many among my friends are complaining that Congress will be paid during the prospective government shutdown, and believe that they should not be.  I would remind them of the provisions of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Const., amend. XXVII (1992)

I don't like seeing the bastards --- particularly the Democrat bastards, who didn't bother to pass a budget when they were in charge --- getting paid while the government is shut down.  Particularly since they won't bother to save the taxpayers money be declining to pay retroactively government employees who are furloughed.

However, Conservatives must stand up for the Constitution.  All of it.  After all, if we don't, who will?  Certainly not President Barry and his Obamorons.

Therefore, I have no problem with paying Congress during a government shutdown.

Of course, you can see here for the uneducated moonbat position.

Timmy! Is In

You can view the video, entitled "The Best Decision I Ever Made," here.  It had 147 views --- apparently, all partisans in Virginia's moonbatosphere --- when I watched it on YouTube.  One suspects that the roll-out was designed to create some kind of far-Left echo-chamber, limiting commentary to that part of the Virginia blogosphere.

This does not appear in it:

Hopefully, he will be counting the decision to run for this seat as the worst decision he ever made, since we'll be finding out whether serving as a mouthpiece for the most radical President in American history translates into votes in Virginia.

I suspect not, but we shall see.

H/T to Ben Tribbett.