Conservativa

Attorney General Bob McDonnell and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling appear to have next year’s big race well in hand. Check out this post at Bearing Drift, complete with a podcast of AG McDonnell. Virginia’s Republican congressional delegation, Virginia’s party leadership, etc. have all strongly endorsed McDonnell for Governor and Bill Bolling for Lt. Governor.

Photo details: photo taken at the Shad Planking. Canon EOS5D, 45mm, ISO 400, 1/125 at f/22.

At Saturday’s Virginia Conservative Leadership Conference on Saturday, a straw poll was taken during the banquet. The room was full of conservative activists, pro-life folks, home-schoolers, etc. For Senate, here are the results (roughly 200 people voting):

Jim Gilmore: 57%
Bob Marshall: 40%

Marshall was there that day and he should have owned the room. If he couldn’t win in that room, it’s not looking good for him for the convention. Conservatives can and will support Jim Gilmore for Senate.

Two more interesting results:

1. For President, 91% voted for McCain. So much for the idea that conservatives will refuse en masse to vote for him.
2. For Attorney General:
   Cuccinelli: 85%
   Brownlee: 9%
   Harris: 6%
3. Most predictable result: for Gov., Lt. Gov., McDonnell and Bolling at 99%+.

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore was on a panel on homeland security, Saturday at the Virginia Conservative Leadership Conference in Richmond. Homeland security is a serious topic, but Gilmore approaches it with the belief that most people will respond well in a crisis, if they are well-prepared. You cannot overemphasize how important planning and preparation are, both for governments and for individual citizens.

Here is a sample of Gilmore’s work on National Security.

Photo details: Canon EOS 5D, 200mm, ISO 800, 1/100 at f/3.5.

Here Donald Huffman, chairman of the RPV during the ’80s, acknowledges the crowd at the banquet at the Virginia Conservative Leadership Conference Saturday, April 26. State Sen. Steve Martin, at left in photo, had many kind words for Huffman, and presented him with the Reagan Leadership Award. Huffman then spoke briefly, graciously thanking others who had helped and supported him along the way, including and especially his wife, who was there at the banquet.

Photo details: Canon EOS5D, ISO 800, 1/80 at f/2.8.

Be sure to see Rick Sincere’s photoblogging of the 5th District Convention. Combine Rick’s reporting and Shaun’s reporting, and you have coverage that has to have exceeded anything in the papers. Good work, guys.

Be sure to see the beautiful quilts over at Kat’s Place. This might be my favorite, but there are lots more. Just keep scrolling down. Thanks for bringing these to the Virginia blogosphere, Kat!

And, for you guys who are too tough to want to look at quilts, there are some nice pictures of a black snake, too. They’re good to have in the yard, but I wouldn’t pick one up…

Shaun Kenney liveblogging up a storm at the 5th District convention.

From the Washington Post, a follow-up on “Eric Cantor for Vice President?“, this blog post, citing the National Journal, and adding,

In recent days, there has been increasing buzz about Cantor being on McCain’s list of potential running mates.

The National Journal, citing anonymous sources, published an article today saying Cantor is “young, Southern, a solid conservative, telegenic, battle-tested, a big fundraiser, very loyal” and “can keep Virginia red.”

(Can’t find the National Journal article online yet). ABC News also picks up the story.

The Times-Dispatch today notes (empasis mine):

Bob Rayner’s Wednesday column, “McCain-Cantor? That’s the Winning Ticket,” has received major play in the blogosphere and among the so-called msm (mainstream media). The attention pays tribute to Eric Cantor (the Republican from the 7th Congressional District, whose wife, Diana, serves on the Board of Directors of Media General, the newspaper’s corporate parent). If Rayner merely had touted a favorite known only in his hometown, no one would have noticed. The column circulated because Cantor’s future appears bright.

Security people stand by as the President prepares to leave Eltham, Va. after speaking (in 2005). Photo details: Canon EOS 7, Fujifilm Pro 400H. “Cyanotype” toned in Photoshop: convert to B&W, add a dark red “filter” to make for a darker sky, make a new layer, blend mode as Color, add a layer mask with a Color Overlay, pick a blue color, adjust color and opacity to suit.

There’s an article by Bob Rayner in today’s Times-Dispatch suggesting that Congressman Eric Cantor would be a great VP pick for McCain. Don’t I wish! Cantor would be an excellent choice - young, conservative, anti-earmarks, strong on defense, etc. etc. etc. A number of us in his district have said to one another, “Wouldn’t he be a great choice?!” But, as the column says, many also think he eventually would like to be Speaker of the House, so would not especially encourage VP talk.

But, we can dream…

(Yes, I know the Cantor typeface doesn’t match. This was the best I could come up with in 1/2 hour).

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) has a sharp eye - looks like he caught the Atlantic with their bias-cut slip showing - here’s the article with a photo of McCain. But Instapundit caught the filename of that photo - “mccain loser.jpg” (uh, guys, spaces in filenames - that’s deprecated on them there interwebs). In case someone tells the Atlantic and they “fix” it, here’s the ‘mccain loser.jpg’ screengrab of the source code (click to embiggen).

The McCain image can be found here at the Getty site. No particular filename is listed, just a Getty image number. So I am guessing that Instapundit is right, it’s someone at the Atlantic who made that snarky filename.

The crew at Bearing Drift have kindly invited me to join, and I’m happy to accept. For me Bearing Drift has been a must-read blog for a long time.

So far the plan is to post different material from what’s here. Over there seems like more of a conversation, and over here, due to the expandable content column (i.e., this Wordpress theme is “liquid”), I can feature larger photographs. So, thanks to my current readers, and, I’m not going anywhere. More photos will be served up!

People attending the Shad Planking say the pledge of allegiance, in the general direction of the flag affixed to the tree in the back.

Check out this video from the House Conference. Especially see the part starting at the 0:31 mark. What has Nancy Pelosi’s team done? Remember, the Democrats had a plan… they had solutions… Well, in fact, they had a lot of talk.

On the other hand, since they are conveniently forgetting/ignoring their promises, they can continue to blame Bush, who is a super-scapegoat for everything from global warming to fallen arches.

Also remember this the next time you hear Barack Obama talk about how he will bring “real change” to, you know, everything. See if someone, anyone, will pin him down on exactly what change.

The weather was beautiful for the Shad Plank - could not have been better. It was dry, though, and very dusty. This is dust on the boot of one of the Ruritans. He is sitting on the platform for the speechmaking portion of the event.

Photo details: Nikon D40, 200mm, ISO 400, 1/250 at f/5.6. Curves tweaked in Photoshop.