Conservativa

This is Delegate Anne Crockett-Stark, of the 6th District. The pictures on her website show more what she really looks like. But she’s wearing purple ‘fur’ in this one.

Here’s an editorial from the Roanoke Times that is against her. She is described as hardworking and friendly, which of course those rubes, the voters, like. What do they know.

Photo details: Canon EOS 3, Fuji Pro400H.

Do you support the troops? If you are reading this blog, chances are very high that you do. Here’s a great way to show it - pick your favorite service branch and donate to Project Valour-IT. What is this project?

Every cent raised for Project Valour-IT goes directly to the purchase and shipment of laptops for severely wounded service members. As of October 2007, Valour-IT has distributed over 1500 laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across the country.

In honor of two friends now in the Army in Iraq, I have pitched in a little and joined up with Team Army.

See how your team is doing, here.

Former Governor Jim Gilmore at the Republican Roundup. He has a blog here, virginiapatriot.com, and his PAC has a site here, patriotscommittee.com. That was a good day for Gilmore - State Central that morning decided on a convention to pick the Rep. nominee for the next Senate race. Conventional wisdom (sorry…) says this favors Gilmore rather than Davis. Article here (complete with really unfortunate Davis photo).

[Note for the humor-impaired - the following article is satire].

Shock is spreading today and some of Virginia’s finest institutions of higher education are in chaos as their accreditation is threatened by revelations that most of their Political Science departments don’t have any political scientists. At least one departmental secretary at the College of William and Mary has gone into hiding. A family spokesman says, “Up until now the Department was able to keep its secret pretty well. Once every couple of years or so a reporter would call the department to speak to one of our ‘political scientists’ asking for a quotation for an article. The secretaries would just say that all of our ‘professors’ were either in class teaching or off at a conference. We have never had a reporter follow through.”

One high-ranking ODU official who wished to remain anonymous “if I want to keep my job,” said “It’s actually a great money-saver for the university. We’re pretty happy with the system.”

UVa admitted the scope of the problem but was quick to point out, “We have Virginia’s only political scientist right here - Larry Sabato.” VCU issued a strong protest, noting that they have Virginia’s other political science professor, Dr. Bob Holsworth.

The issue came to light when a Liberty University journalism major, Ellie Mae Junie Petty, decided to write a round-up article soliciting opinions from Virginia’s leading political scientists about the November 6 election in Virginia, in which every seat in the House of Delegates and Senate will be decided. “I went looking for political science professors outside Liberty to quote for my article. Of course I knew about Larry Sabato, but I wanted some diversity of opinion, because, you know, diversity is good. So I started calling around to other Virginia colleges and universities, to speak to some other political scientists. I must have made a hundred calls and left a lot of messages. No one called back, no one.”

Petty nervously turns her cell phone over and over in her hand. “So I got in my car and started driving to some of these campuses. I would just stroll into the PoliSci departments. You would see the departmental secretary, and a few graduate students, but every office belonging to a “professor” was locked. There would be the door, covered with yellowing Doonesbury comic strips, and a nameplate with the professor’s name, but in two cases, I saw dust coating the top of the doorknob. How could that be? Especially at state schools, aren’t parents paying tax dollars and tuition for what they think are complete PoliSci departments?”

Contacted for this article, Larry Sabato issued a statement saying, “I’m here and have always been very responsive to any reporters who call for a quotation. If the reporter is really old-school and claims to want another opinion, there’s that other guy from, um, I forget, but there’s that other guy. I can’t imagine what Miss Petty’s problem is. She should be grateful I answer reporters the way I do. Political trends are not discernible except by trained professionals like me. Thus it is right that I should be the sole source of such information for reporters. Do you know how much work I save them? A lot, I can tell you. That frees up their time to get back to the important business of bashing the President.”

What will become of the article Petty intended to write? “I don’t know,” she says. “I wanted to hear some in-depth analysis [of the upcoming election] from a bunch of different political thinkers on our campuses. I guess that won’t be possible. But it’s too bad, because this election is really important, and people aren’t paying much attention. Maybe some fresh ideas would get them thinking.”

[Another note for the humor-impaired - the preceding article is meant to poke a stick at those newspaper reporters who are lazy - not at universities or political scientists. Mm-kay?]

Nearing November you would think we would be having Fall weather, but this year Autumn in Virginia has been coming in like a cranky child who refuses to settle down for a nap. It has been too hot too long, too humid, wouldn’t rain… until we finally got some rain in the last couple of days.

Photo details: Fuji F45 (point & shoot), ISO 1600. Curves; contrast increased in Photoshop.

…to paint himself as tough on immigration. See this Times-Dispatch article, page B10 of the dead-tree edition. He’s working with the State Police to be tough on immigration! Well, except that he won’t get with the 287(g) thing. This Washington Post poll seems to have gotten the attention of some Democrats.

This also is interesting - Lowell at Raising Kaine quotes some thoughts from a “highly knowledgeable reader who wishes to remain anonymous.” One of the points:

“2. The surge of importance people are placing on immigration is therefore a result of how much time the GOP is spending talking about that issue.”

Sorry, but I think the GOP “message machine” is not that effective. I think it’s the other way around - GOP legislators and candidates are hearing from their constituents that this is an issue, so they (the legislators) are now realizing that they can run with it.

Oh, and let me correct Lowell’s reader - it’s illegal immigration that is the issue. Everyone cheers people who come here from other places, obey the law, and take part in the American Dream. Two “famous people” examples that come to mind: Jindal of Louisiana (born here, to parents who came from India). Or, for that matter, Schwarzenegger of California. There are many millions of “not famous” but equally wonderful stories.

It is becoming irritating to hear Republicans say, “When we run on our ideas, we win.” Um, no. Not unless that running involves relentless marketing of our ideas. We’re a little short on relentless these days. Yes, we have great ideas, but we are often uncomfortable reducing them to soundbites. I don’t mean we should reduce them thusly. But if we are going to run on more complex ideas, that means we must reach more people with more content more often.

This puts us at a disadvantage, as we don’t own old media. We have plenty of good bloggers, but what are we doing with that? For good thoughts on this, see Patrick Ruffini (posting at Hugh Hewitt’s place).

Excerpts:

…I can identify two information flow problems for the right, neither of which have to do with “blogs” as commonly understood…

…And the Bobby Jindal story is also a litmus test. The fact that an Illinois state senator with few accomplishments got fawning coverage when he first ran, while the younger Jindal’s storied accomplishments and unique narrative are A17 news speaks volumes…

…Republicans have research operations as sophisticated if not more. The challenge is that they’re tied up on campaigns, the RNC, Congressional leadership, think tanks, etc. They can only release information that supports their message on any given day. Or they’re focused on long term policy studies, not day-to-day political battles. To the extent they’re “official,” they’re also seen as less credible. If any of these operations could release the majority of their work product on a blog, it would be incredibly powerful. But they’re prevented from doing so, for institutional reasons.

If someone has $2 million to throw around on Rush Limbaugh’s letter, then someone has a few million to spend on a blogger-journalists to investigate Democratic corruption or on a sustained project to get out different storylines about Iraq or to set up an open-source research operation to more closely bracket the coverage.

Read the whole thing, as they say. Especially if you are a party leader.

Do you live in Virginia’s 39th district? Then vote Jay O’Brien for Senate . I am not his constituent. So why do I urge those living in his district to vote for him?

To make a long story short, I had a concern from a past job. In late 2005, surfing at the Legislative Info System, I discovered that Sen. O’Brien had had a bill on that subject die in committee earlier in the year. I called Sen. O’Brien out of the blue, having never talked to him before, and asked if he would reintroduce the bill, and explained why. He did (a different and better version of the bill), and with the assistance of several others, including Walter Stosch (Sen. - 12th), the bill passed in 2006.

To repeat, I’m not even his constituent, but he listened and helped out, even though it was no gain for him. (I did not have a blog then on which to praise him). He just did what he thought was right for Virginia.

So if you live in Sen. O’Brien’s district, you follow his lead and do what’s right for Virginia: vote for Jay O’Brien for Senate on Nov. 6. If you can, call his campaign and volunteer to help. If you have the funds, please donate so he can buy airtime, etc. You can contribute to Jay O’Brien through RedStormPac, or choose “Support Our Campaign” on the left side on the campaign website, or mail the campaign at P. O. Box 5, Clifton, VA 20124-8470.

Photo details: Canon EOS30D, 1/50 at f/6.3, 50mm lens, ISO 400, no flash. Photo taken in Feb., 2007.

Photos and Googlemaps of the Witch Creek fire.

Rolling breaking news fire blog from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Interesting bits that personalize the story, such as the listing of someone who is willing to stable up to 1,700 horses.

San Diego endangered. Good CBS/San Diego site.

Good roundup from Kithbridge.com.

Michael Yon is a first class freelance photojournalist. Please read his new dispatch from Iraq: Resistance is Futile: You Will be (mis)Informed. Terrific writing, fine photographs. Learn what it’s like in Iraq, and what it’s like to try to report from Iraq.

From today’s Times-Dispatch, a Jeff Schapiro article. He quotes a political scientist from Mary Washington [Schapiro writing]:

Republicans may also see in the budget, as they apparently did in illegal immigration, a chance to change the subject from the bad-driver fees, which triggered a largely Internet-based voter revolt, and from an unpopular GOP president, Farnsworth said.

Because every Virginian should vote for his or her house or senate legislator based on polls of the popularity (defined by what criteria? polls paid for by whom? with how-good methodology) of the President of the United States.

Poor tired old meme. That ol’ dog never hunted and won’t hunt now.

Patrick Ruffini: “I don’t care who your candidate for President is. Tonight, Bobby Jindal is our leader.” Read the whole thing, including the comments.

Heh. Here’s an old New York Times article on Jindal - the headline is “Top Bush Adviser on Medicare Says He’ll Return to Louisiana.” Meaning, “loser associated with that loser Bush bails to go home and get away from Bush, with whom he is associated, which should always be pointed out, because Bush associates are losers and worthy of contempt.”

On today’s NYT home page, we see, pretty far down the page, a link to the story “Indian-American Elected Lousiana’s Governor.” The word “Bush” does not appear in the article.

The article takes pains to say what an uphill battle he now faces in governing the state. Well, yeah, but his election was an uphill battle, too, and he has won it.

Huge positive news for Republicans. Jindal is an excellent young politician and will surely continue to be a party leader for years to come.

Story from Baton Rouge paper The Advocate/WBRZ News2 .

Watch the MSM (non-Louisiana, that is) struggle to downplay the significance of this.

It’s a problem that affects everyone. The Federal government should be taking action, but they won’t: “I think most governors are just tired of waiting,” Kaine said in this Times-Dispatch article. “We can’t wait for the federal government to do it.”

Thank goodness for the leadership of Gov. Tim Kaine. He’s finally attacking the problem. Oh, what problem, you ask? Global warming. That’s right. Hope you weren’t thinking illegal immigration. That’s for the Feds to handle. Never mind that Republicans are doing what they can to get law enforcement the tools they need to enforce the laws. Tim Kaine is not interested in helping out there.

On Thursday Delegate Reid pointed out, “Suggesting Virginia should take a proactive role on global warming, an issue he concedes is federal in nature, while failing to take action on the growing negative effects of criminal illegal aliens is misguided and insulting to Virginians’ common sense. ”

Maybe Gov. Kaine could start by entering into those 287(g) partnerships. If that would make it easier to deport criminal illegal aliens, wouldn’t that make life a little better for everyone? Republicans AND Democrats? Sigh. Just askin’.

Photo details - old point-n-shoot. Motion blur added in Photoshop.

The Democrats are in the majority in Congress, and the Republicans, led by Eric Cantor, still manage to out-maneuver them. Then they complain that the maneuvering is not fair. What’s not fair to this country is a bunch of Democrats wanting to fight the War on Terror like it’s a particularly complicated court case. Sorry people - It’s. A. War.

Cantor’s blog post: http://www.cantorforcongress.com/blog/?p=57 . Weekly Standard item. Important questions from Powerline Blog.