From the Washington Post:

An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) to the University of Virginia seeking documents related to the work of climate scientist and former university professor Michael Mann.

Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli can investigate whether fraud has occured in university grants, as the attorney general had contended, but ruled that Cuccinelli’s subpoena failed to state a “reason to believe” that Mann had committed fraud.

Finally, there’s hope that maybe we can finally start seeing the end of these harassments being undertaken by the office of the Attorney General.

Of course, we can most likely expect the lunatic fringe to criticize this prudent ruling as an act of “judicial activism”.

“The Court has read with care those pages and understands the controversy regarding Dr. Mann’s work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Peatross wrote.

End of story. We hope.

The newest entry in the “we’re not surprised” column is this nugget that’s been dug up:

http://officialdickblack.com/

The site was registered on August 8, 2010. No official word from the demagogue potential candidate, but apparently he believes he can unseat one of the strongest Democratic senators in the Commonwealth with his divisive and hateful rhetoric.

Loudoun voters repudiated (not “refutiated”, thank you) Mr. “Baby Pesticides”  5 years ago – rest assured we’re not about to go back to the dark ages again.

EDIT: I did not realize that there was a post on another website with the same title as mine. My apologies.

http://blackout2011.com/

That great site lists ALL of the reasons leading to Mr. “Plastic Fetuses” being defeated.

So says The Washington Post:

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) will announce Thursday that Virginia’s final 2010 budget surplus will be about $400 million, almost twice the previous estimate, state officials said.

About $229 million comes from tax collections. The remainder comes from unspent balances.

Wow! It’s amazing!! In this economy, we’re running a $400 million surplus!! Thank goodness we elected those fiscally responsible Republicans!!

(wow, that was hard to type)

But then you dig a little deeper and look at the details.

As part of the budget earlier this year, the General Assembly and the governor managed to “balance” the budget by skipping payments to the Virginia Retirement System to the tune of $620 million. Government entities will have to pay it back at some point with interest.

And here we get to the truth of the matter. Those “fiscally responsible Republicans” are balancing the state budget on the backs of public employees. All the bitching and moaning Republicans do about pushing off public debt to our granchildren, and they take the same approach? You hypocritical bastards.

Using the money that was supposed to go to public employees’ pension funds and claiming that the budget is not just in balance, but running a surplus? Enron played with their employees’ pensions, made their company look in better financial shape than it really was, and people went to prison for it.

And now, we’re on the hook for a future payment of over $600 million (plus interest). How in the world is this fiscally responsible? And the so-called “liberal, mainstream media” (I’m looking at you, Washington Post) doesn’t even bother to point this out?

Governor McDonnell, you need to be held personally responsible for this Ponzi scheme that you are pulling on the Commonwealth of Virginia.

(h/t to Lowell at Blue Virginia for the link to Doug Mataconis’ blog.)

From The Washington Independent:

It turns out that an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions really is necessary to spur investment in what President Obama likes to call the “clean energy economy.” At least for Deutsche Bank.

Politico pointed today to an Aug. 11 Reuters story that says Deutsche Bank will funnel the $6 billion to $7 billion in investment money it puts aside for climate change not to the United States, but to Western Europe and, wait for it, China.

We’ve just had the second-warmest July on record, and we’re on pace to have the warmest year ever, temperature-wise. The warming of the earth and the resultant warming of the oceans is most likely a cause for the severe storms we have experienced over the past few years.

And the climate change-phobics who refuse to take action on clean energy and carbon emissions legislation are now costing us billions in planned investment funds that will be moving elsewhere in the world.

Yet, they’ll still blame the president for the lack of movement with regard to jobs.

From Daily Kos, via Ezra Klein

The plan on the right adds $36 billion to the deficit in 2011. The party of fiscal responsibiity? My a**.Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, agrees:

If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.

Balance the budget, reduce the deficit, eliminate the national debt, but hey, give big tax breaks to our rich buddies (i.e., “our base”)!! Ain’t gonna work, guys.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart continually gets it right, in way that is both hilarious and thought-provoking (And if I knew how to embed a video in here, it would be much, much better).

http://www.thedailyshow.com/wa…

(With a little futzing, and teamwork, it’s remarkable what can be accomplished. At least, in terms of posting videos -P13)

Well, it’s not like we didn’t see this one coming…

30-year incumbent Republican congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) on Tuesday voted against a bill (that President Obama signed) giving aid to states that allows laid-off teachers to be re-hired and keeps police officers on payrolls.

Rep. Wolf represents the hypocrisy running rampant these days within the Republican Party. On the one hand, they criticize the Obama administration for their policies not reducing the unemployment rate quickly enough, yet when the administration passes a bill that saves jobs, the GOP howls. They’ll whine about the cost, yet will push for tax rate cuts on the wealthy that will increase the federal debt and deficit. This bill actually reduces the federal deficit by over $1 billion, yet 161 Republicans (and Frank Wolf) voted against it.

Where’s the logic in all that?This is the party that passed those massive tax rate cuts under the previous administration, claiming the cuts would create jobs. The unemployment rate shot up to over 10% during that time. Now, as the cuts are nearing their expiration, the Republicans (and Frank Wolf) are claiming that letting the cuts expire would hamper small business’ ability to create jobs. So let me see here – the initial cuts were supposed to create jobs, but they didn’t, so we need to extend those cuts so that small business can create jobs.

Where’s the logic in that?

The fact is simple; Frank Wolf has no ideas for creating jobs in this district. In fact, his vote on Tuesday showed that he’s not interested in saving jobs, just saving his career. His main congressional objective is to oppose anything favored by the administration and/or the leadership in Congress. He’s not a leader – he’s a follower, and he’s unfortunately following a path (and trying to get us to follow with him) that leads us right back to the problems that caused our whole economic mess in the first place.

Jeff Barnett, on the other hand, IS a proven leader. His 26 years of military service and years as a business leader are proof that he has the ideas that can turn this country around.  Jeff Barnett understands the importance that teachers have in educating our children. He doesn’t underestimate the role that public safety personnel play in our daily lives, unlike Frank Wolf, who voted against that yesterday.

Jeff Barnett wants people to hear about what he will do to help this district, not run away from his record, like Frank Wolf is doing.  

In November, you have a choice – return to the failed policies of the early 2000’s, or progress forward with a proven leader like Jeff Barnett.

I know how I’m voting. It’s logical.

From Daily Kos:

The guy’s a hard-core righty who isn’t even far-right enough for the Lunatic Fringe. I feel no sorrow over his primary defeat, but I’m glad he’s spilling the beans on the extremist tilt the Republican Party is taking.

Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), who in June lost his renomination bid by massive 38-point margin after criticizing Glenn Beck, isn’t backing down from his condemnation of the growing tide of tea party-fueled extremism in the GOP. Last month, he excoriated Republicans leaders as demagogues and said that anti-Obama sentiment was being driven in part by racism. Now he’s offering more details on how whacky conspiracy theories have come to dominate the Republican Party, thanks in large part to the GOP’s tea party fringe.

Maybe it’s sour grapes, who knows, but I don’t care. Watching the party eat itself from the inside is pure entertainment for me.

My hope is that the rational peopole in this country come to their senses and educate themselves before the November elections. We don’t need a return to the flawed and failed policies of the 2001-06 years. We may be struggling now, but we’re in a better place then we were less than 2 years ago, and improving, albeit slowly.

I saw this referenced last night in numerous “Tweets”, and it slipped my mind until Lowell posted this today on Blue Virginia:

From Salon.com:

Yes, Muslims have infiltrated the Pentagon for their nefarious, prayerful purposes — daring to practice their religion inside the building where 184 people died on Sept. 11, 2001. They haven’t even had the sensitivity to move two blocks, let alone a mile, away from that sacred site.

The “desecration” began shockingly soon after the attacks. Cox reported in October 2001:

“Army Chaplain Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, the first Muslim chaplain to serve in the military, read a verse from the Koran at the memorial service at the Pentagon on Thursday, exactly one month after the attack. Muhammad, who became a chaplain eight years ago and works at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, ministered to rescuers in front of the smoldering Pentagon after the attack.”

Any guesses as to why no one has ever heard about Muslims praying at the Pentagon — let alone cared? It’s almost as if the entire “ground zero mosque” controversy was whipped up out of nothing by a right-wing tabloid and politicians in search of a wedge issue …

Naw, the righties wouldn’t do that, would they?This mosque has been inside The Pentagon since before the September 11th attacks, and not a peep from the wingnuts, yet a mosque being built near Ground Zero has them frothing at the mouth. Nah, not political at all.

And what better place for political theater than near the lights of Broadway.

What a bunch of two-faced hypocrites.  

From the Jeff Barnett for Congress campaign headquarters:

Barnett Campaign Will Hold Ten Town Hall Meetings

McLean, VA — Jeff Barnett, Democratic Nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 10th District, announced that he will hold ten town hall meetings across the District.

“Frank Wolf has agreed to one debate and one forum, but that’s not nearly enough. That’s why I’m putting together ten town hall meetings. 10th District residents deserve the opportunity to question their candidates on the issues they are most concerned about and to hear opposing views” said Jeff Barnett. “It’s disappointing that Frank Wolf is ducking the tough issues by refusing to debate me in more than once place, but these town hall meetings will allow voters to hear from at least one of their candidates directly,” Barnett continued. “I look forward to an open exchange of ideas about our future.”  The schedule of town hall meetings is as follows

Chantilly: Monday, August 9 from 7:00-8:30PM at Chantilly Regional Library

McLean: Wednesday, August 11 from 7:00-8:30 at McLean Community Center

Manassas Park: Monday, August 16 from 7:00-8:30 at the Manassas Park Government Center

Great Falls: Tuesday, August 17 from 7:00-8:30 at Great Falls Library

Ashburn: Tuesday, August 24 from 7:00-8:30 at Ashburn Library

Leesburg: Wednesday, August 25 from 7:00-8:30 at Thomas Balch Library

Front Royal: Thursday, August 26 from 7:00-8:30 at Samuels Library

Winchester: Monday, August 30 from 7:00-8:30 at the Public Safety Building on Coverstone Drive

Warrenton: Wednesday, September 1 from 7:00-8:30 at the Warrenton-Fauquier Visitors Center

Herndon: Thursday, September 2 from 7:00-8:30 at the Herndon Fortnightly Library

“There is a stark contrast between the two candidates in this race,” said Marc Abanto, Jeff Barnett’s Campaign Manager. “Unlike his opponent, Jeff Barnett embraces the challenge of debating policy proposals. He is more than willing to talk to voters across the political spectrum. These town hall meetings will demonstrate Jeff’s command of the issues and prove the strength of Jeff’s approach to addressing the problems of the 10th District and of our nation.”