Waldo’s Virginia Political Blogroll

From last night’s Rick’s List:

• It Must Be A Pretty Long Short List
• It Must Be A Pretty Long Short List
• Rick Santelli Takes On The White House
• Rick Santelli Takes On The White House
• Don’t You Have To Wear Clothes to Qualify ?

Amazingly, I seem to have been omitted from the guest list for the upcoming Mezvinsky-Clinton nuptials.

They must have heard I was getting the other knee scoped and didn’t want to put me to the bother.

Just as well…I really should stick to the early rehab stuff instead of traipsing off to upstate New York and wait by the phone for my certain invitation to join the judging crew of “American Idol”.

Yes, I am getting a little stir crazy…but the knee is coming along about as well as can be expected.

More to come…

Hey, look—Reuters continues to treat our weekly staged protest in Tehran as if it's news!

Shocka.

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Iranian worshippers shout anti-U.S. and anti-Israel slogans while attending Friday prayers at the University of Tehran July 30, 2010. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION CIVIL UNREST IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Are You French Fries or Onion Rings?

Here's one for Kevin, who complained about our last musical interlude around here—This a little bit more to your liking, sir?

The CD's only available via import at present—but it's a must-have for any Loudness fan, as always. (Now if they'd only get around to touring the United States again...)

Looks like Quantico can now be known for more than just being the city with more barbers per capita than anywhere else in the world—We now have fresh fried traitors down here now, too!

(CNN) -- An Army private suspected of leaking classified material, including videos and other documents, has been transferred from Kuwait to a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, who served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, was charged in June with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code and is the military's focus in the investigation into who leaked tens of thousands of documents to the website WikiLeaks.

Considering that the Marine Corps is easily the most patriotic branch of our military, I'm sure Manning is going to have a delightful stay in the brig.

(Oh yeah—Thanks to John for the Gtalk tip!)

This has got to be one of the best Nigerian scams I've seen in a long while:

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:25:15 +0100
From: "UNTED NATION"<ea.2010@live.com>
Subject: IS IT TRUE THAT YOU ARE DEAD?

Dear Beneficiary,

We are writing to let you know that one Mr Gumanti R. H. Sihombing MM from Jl. Sunggal 157, Kompleks Perumahan  BPKP, Medan, Indonesia came to our Office today to claim your fund  ($6.5Million) that is with our custody and said that you are dead, that he is your brother , you gave him Authority to claim your fund in case if you  die. We are writing to find if it is true that you are dead so that your fund will be released to him.

If we did not hear from you within three working days that means you are dead true and your fund will be release to him.

Best Regards,
Mr.  Sam Daws
Executive Director of United Nation Office In  Uk
Postal Address United Nations Association of the UK 3 Whitehall Court
London
SW1A 2EL
447031899515
Mobil 447031899515
www.una-uk.org

Kindly get back to us by email as soon as you receive this message

My reply?

Yep, I'm dead. It's all his!

Yours in Christ,
Brian

My congratulations to Mr. Gumanti R. H. Sihombing MM for his newfound fortune!

Joel Rosenberg is the author of the excellent (and prophetic, if you ask me) Political Thrillers series, which I've discussed on a number of occasions—Particularly as his observations begin to align with actual events.

Well, it seems you can't hold a good author down, because he's been looking at the current situation between Israel and Iran—not to mention Iran's Twelver president—and has apparently been able to weave that into a new book.

I can only hope that Official Iranian Salute Guy plays a starring role. That'd definitely convince me to get my copy even faster!

There were rumors floating around a little while back that the White House was looking for ways to skirt around Federal immigration law, offering amnesty to illegal immigrants using only the power of the Executive Branch.

To absolutely nobody's surprise, these rumors turn out to be completely true:

According to an internal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo going the rounds of Capitol Hill and obtained by National Review, the agency is considering ways in which it could enact “meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action” — that is, without the consent of the American people through a vote in Congress.

Naturally, the government has responded, claiming that the memo was intended only to discuss "ideas."

Can you imagine how loud the outcry would've been if it were the Bush Administration that was "discussing ideas" about violating the law they were sworn to uphold?

(Thanks to P/Oed Pundit, who is guest-blogging for the recovering Gateway Pundit this week.)

August 31st will be my last day in the the field of agriculture. Our farm was sold on July 22nd, and my father will disperse all of his cattle and equipment before the first day of September. Three days later our family will take our first real vacation in 15 years.

Even though we have another month, I already have this incredible feeling of freedom. It’s called NO JOB!

When I was 7 years old my dad took me to the Farm Bureau on Grace Street and bought me my first pair of Carolina work shoes and I thought I had hit the big time. I’ll still be wearing the Carolinas out of respect for the generations of my family who worked like dogs to make ends meet. I’m thrilled for my dad who is completely worn out after a lifetime of sacrifice. I hope he enjoys the remaining years of his life. He’s definitely earned it.

On a side note…If production agriculture continues the road it’s on, it will soon be unaffordable to participate in. The thing that will allow this area to hold on longer will be the worship of farming by Old Order Mennonites, their “old money”, and their giving of the land to the next generation cheap. In Pennsylvania, the Amish are starting to run out of money, and we are usually about 10 years behind them. The new Chesapeake Bay restrictions, high input costs, state and federal permit requirements, and taxes is going to be the ruination of a great thing.

…you’re against women.

Yeah, that’s right.  So says TIME Magazine with its latest war propaganda:

Now, it’s unclear whether or not female face mutilations are official Taliban policy, but forget about that 911 stuff, and while you’re at it, forget about all that drug dealing stuff, too.  The mission is now officially for white-knighting on behalf of Afghani women.

While we’re at it, the Iranians are a bunch of misogynists, too.  Look at the humiliation they pile upon their women:

http://writewingpolitics.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/burka.jpg

Just awful.  What do all the Iranian men of the past 40 years have to say for themselves?  Well?  Anything?

Typical men.  Now more American military men have to brave a 50% divorce rate because no Iranian man will stand up for their women’s equality.

If the spirit of alternative debt resolution, here’s a proposal similiar to that discussed between Kissinger and Mao: how about we send 40 million American women in exchange for 200,000 Afghani women?  That way, the Taliban and Al CIAeda will crumble withing a year.

Senator McCaskill Says 6,600 Graves at Arlington Could Be Wrong

EPA Rejects Cuccinelli Challenge

With Petition Rejection, Virginia Returns to Court Over Global Warming

McDonnell to Push ABC Sale at Town Hall Meetings

McDonnell Open to Options on Shooting Range

Virginia Debate Continues Over Immigration Enforcement

Prince William Chairman Stewart Unveils Arizona-Like Immigration Bill

McDonnell Downplays Injunction Issued Against Arizona Law

Warner Chows Down at The Palm

Media Not Invited to Tea party Meeting with Hurt, Goodlatte

Tobacco Commission Funds 2 Southside Projects

Soering Still Hoping for Release

Court Rules Activist Can Post Officials’ SSN’s on-Line

“Big Daddy” Arrested in Beach Drug Ring Bust

Port of Richmond Takes $1 Million Loan from City

Chesterfield County Woman Sues over “Fortune Teller” Label

Spotted on the Yahoo! News front page earlier today, a visual summary of the anti-Arizona movement.

The overacted rage goes quite well with the expected cli-ché shirt and undersized backpack, but the apparent lip gloss really puts this guy over the top.

I'm just quaking in my boots, I tell ya.

The news these days is flush with accounts of the proposed sale of Virginia’s post-prohibition monopoly of ABC stores. For generations, the Commonwealth has controlled liquor by the bottle through a state-based network of about 300 stores that do no advertising, rarely display signage, and still wrap bottles in a trademark brown paper bag. Governor Bob McDonnell wants to change that.

My friend Sen. John Chichester used to tell me that Virginia’s hold on ABC stores resulted in the state drinking in both tax and profit. In other words, liquor stores are another example of a well run government program, this time as an actual business. And a very profitable one at that! And those general fund dollars have been put to excellent use over the years, particularly in the area of mental health. Though the irony of liquor sales funding mental health programs is not lost.

While it is not yet clear what cocktail of agreements Gov. McDonnell may serve up at his special session of the General Assembly later this year, what is clear is that he will need to show how privatizing ABC stores will gin up new dollars for transportation, a perennial campaign issue for all rising-star politicians in the state. Suggested windfall numbers are in the hundreds of millions of dollars but no one can agree on how to actually get to those numbers.

And he will also need to show how the benefits of privatization outweigh the broad social costs. If privatization comes to Virginia it will mean many more drink stands than we have right now. An early estimate puts the number as high as 800. And it is unlikely they will be located next to the neighborhood Nordstrom. More likely you’ll find the new stores near the payday lenders. As another friend recently said to me: in your neighborhood they sell “spirits,” in mine, they sell “liquor.”

We speak a great deal about moral budgeting at the Virginia Interfaith Center. We know that budgets speak to our values as a society. The jury is out as to how moral it is to take dollars from alcohol sales and put them toward substance abuse programs. But one thing is clear, many of the moral voices that one would expect to hear from, the ones that tell the rest of us how we should be acting, and what our kids should be praying about and where they should be allowed to do it, sure are quiet about Gov. McDonnell’s ABC privatization ideas. Maybe the buzz from last November hasn’t worn off yet.