Keith Hummel M.D., aka the Virginia Populist, is up not only with a new campaign site, but a blog as well. Dr. Hummel is a Democratic candidate for Congress, looking to take on freshman Rep.Rob Wittman in the 1st congressional district.
Hummel on Outsourcing:
It’s a problem we can no longer afford to ignore. The Indian economy is booming thanks to our jobs being shipped overseas.
Hummel on Fair Trade:
History has shown however that fully unrestrained capitalism benefits only a privileged minority.
The Reagan and Bush I years created the impression that if government would only get out of the way, big business, big banking, and big oil would provide our country with previously unheard of prosperity.
Hummel on Health Care:
I was aware that the American healthcare system was in trouble when I was an E.R. doctor, but it wasn’t until I went into private practice in Montross that I realized that it was not just in trouble, but irrevocably broken.
Click here to donate $ to Keith Hummel via ActBlue.
Last year, many students (and professors) at the University of Mary Washington were angry that the school had asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to deliver the commencement address at graduation. According to a Free Lance-Star article written last year on the subject, only one Democrat has been invited in the past five years. Gingrich was joined by State Sen. John Chichester in 2002 and VA House Speaker Bill Howell in 2003.
Well now they can make it one in the past six years because Sen. John Warner will be giving the commencement this year. Many people who were upset with Gingrich’s appearence last year were left with the impression that a Democrat would be giving the speech in 2008.
Would it kill them to invite Sen. Warner in 2009 when he’ll have a lot more free time on his hands? I’m not asking UMW to just cave in completely, but ever hear of compromise? Mixing it up by alternating between moderate and conservative Republicans is just asking for it.
The category F2 tornado that tore a four-mile by 150-foot swath from the England Run North subdivision to the area just south of Stafford Regional Airport may well be remembered as one of the top regional news stories of 2008. But for many of us, this storm was personal.
I worship with not one, but two families that sustained considerable damage to home and property - not just the dwellings, but automobiles, too. My thoughts and prayers remain with them.
Twisters are random in execution, cruelly efficient, and totally ironic. Consider the new homeowners whose corner-lot home is shown in yesterday’s post. They had just moved in. Their sod lawn, still bright green and weed-free, had just been installed.
If there is good news, it is that homes and automobiles can be repaired, and so too can the lives of those displaced by this meteorological monster.
But what of the metaphorical twister that is the 2008 presidential race?
Will longtime friends and activists, torn apart by a prolonged and at times painful presidential primary season, be singing koombaya in the fall? To that, I say time heals.
Like the families tossed up by the F2 menace, I believe we’ll all (okay, maybe not all, but 98 percent of us) be on the same page by the November election.
Beginning at approximately 10:30 last evening, a line of severe thunderstorms - and a yet to be determined number of tornadoes - crossed over Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties, and the City of Fredericksburg.
This photo from NewsChannel8 shows severe damage to newly-constructed homes in Stafford County’s England Run North subdivision, by the intersection of Truslow Road and Lyons Boulevard.
The intersection of Mountain View Road and Centrepoint Parkway in Stafford County also suffered flooding and several downed trees, but not clear at this time if the damage at that intersection was the result of a micro-burst (severe, straight-line high winds) or a twister.
Most areas in the Fredericksburg Region received several inches of rain and flooding in low-lying areas is expected. If you must drive throughout the day, do so with extreme caution.
And if you have photos you wish to post to Fred2Blue, please send them to us here.
UPDATE: Here are some photos of tornado damage, at the intersection of Mountain View Road and Centrepoint Pkwy:
UPDATE II: Torrential rain seems to roust the Eastern Box Turtles from their homes. With the drought last year, we saw none. But with all the rain we’ve had in the past couple of days, the box turtles are out and about. I snapped this photo on my property, today.
When driving, please keep an eye open for these endangered, slow-moving critters.
Dan Conley has a great piece just published on Salon where he compares the current Obama-Clinton situation to the Chuck Robb-Douglas Wilder Senate stand-off of 1994. Conley was Gov. Wilder’s press secretary during that campaign and has also worked for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, now one of Obama’s biggest supporters. The similarities between 2008 and 1994 are really remarkable.
It was hard to accept — like Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, we’d finally found our message, but we were out of time and money. Wilder had dug deep into his own pocket — again, like Hillary — to fund the race, but we still couldn’t afford to put ads on the air. We’d all worked weeks without pay. We had no realistic path to victory, but we believed down deep that our candidate would make the best senator.
WIlder, who was running to Robb’s left as an Independent, didn’t quit the race until the fall, and the Democratic Party in Virginia looked hopelessly fractured…
After his endorsement, Wilder hit the campaign trail for Chuck Robb, cut radio advertisements, and did everything else possible to get out his supporters to vote for the incumbent senator. He repaired the damage not in five months, but five weeks. In 1994 — one of the worst years for Democrats in the 20th century — the supposedly divided and hopeless Virginia Democratic Party pulled off the most surprising win of the year.
1985 Nobel Peace Prize winner Richard Cizik of Stafford has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 World’s Most Influential People. Cizik is an evangelical Presbyterian minister who is credited, along with Eric Chivian, with helping to bridge the divide between religion and science.
What brings Chivian and Cizik together is a shared passion for the environment, although they act on that passion in very different ways. Chivian is a highly trained scientist who tells stories like a teacher with the bedside manner of the general-practice physician he used to be. Cizik quotes the Bible, carefully referring to “creation care” rather than climate change or global warming, and advocates a brand of pro-life politics that extends well beyond human conception, up through the care of God’s creation itself.
As predicted weeks ago, Tomzak won big. Vice-Mayor Devine and Greenlaw take the two other spots on the city council over Republican BJ Huff. Bailey and Gillenwater were uncontested for their two spots on the school board.
Our presumptive GOP nominee for Governor in 2009, VA Attorney General Bob McDonnell, could learn a thing or two from the Buckeye State. In nine months, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann successfully shut down a scam employment agency in his state called Global Personnel.
Basically they make you pay several hundred dollars up front with the promise of placing you in a job after the payment is received. But after you give them your bank account information….surprise! No job. Just the promise that something might come available at some point. Nice way to treat people who are already unemployed to begin with and are trying hard to change that.
The person who owned that company, Karla O’Leary, has been investigated here in the commonwealth by WAVY-TV in Hampton Roads for the past decade. Her Virginia company was originally called Jobs Plus, but after the first local expose O’Leary changed it to Virginia Personnel.
Ohio’s Attorney General succeeded where Virginia failed. It only took nine months to shut down O’Leary’s similar business in Columbus Ohio called Global Personnel.
“In our opinion it was all just a scam,” says Michael Sliwinski, who’s an Assistant State Attorney General under Marc Dann.
“We are blessed because Marc has made it a priority to crack down on consumer fraud,” Sliwinski says.
Sliwinski convinced an Ohio Judge to issue a Temporary Restraining Order against Global Personnel, shutting them down even though O’Leary’s side argued her signed contracts make it clear that payment is non-refundable and not liable if the client fails to receive employment.
But what can we really expect from a guy that learned law from Pat Robertson’s Regent University (originally called CBN University…as in Christian Broadcasting Network)? In addition to being founded by a vile, disgusting human being, U.S. News & World Report named it a tier 4 law school… it’s lowest rating.
Just for you, here’s some if his greatest hits:
“Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It’s no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again.”
“(T)he feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
“Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up”
“Take control, Lord! We ask for additional vacancies on the court.”
Stafford Co. Dem Chair Marc Broklawski was in Alexandria last night to celebrate the launch of Mark Warner’s campaign for U.S. Senate. He sent us some pictures featuring Warner, as well as Leslie Byrne and Creigh Deeds.
Future Senator Mark Warner kicked things off in Roanoke over the weekend. The GOP will choose their nominee at a convention on May 31. Former Gov. Jim Gilmore is considered to be the favorite over Del. Bob Marshall of Prince William County. Despite the fact that Warner will be the heavy favorite over whoever he faces, he doesn’t plan on turning this into a coronation. And Sunday in Roanoke, Mark Warner spoke out on some of the “hot button” issues of the day.
Warner called for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but said he opposes a fixed timetable. He also called for an energy plan that reduces dependence on foreign oil and a “national competitiveness plan” for producing educated workers, affordable health care and improved infrastructure.
After his speech, Warner questioned the wisdom of proposals by presidential candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer months.
“I would be concerned about whether those dollars would be replaced,” said Warner, noting that gas tax revenues pay for transportation improvements.
“I think what we need is a solution that goes after the oil speculators to try to bring down the gas price,” said Warner, adding that a stronger dollar and a new energy policy could ease pressure on gas prices.
Why should Indiana and North Carolina have all the fun? Fredericksburg, Orange, Culpeper, and Colonial Beach, among others, are holding local elections tomorrow here in the commonwealth. The marquee race in this area is, of course, the one for Fredericksburg Mayor between Tomzak and Girvan. Over at RaisingKaine I give my take on the matchup for those outside our area who haven’t been following the race. Personally, I don’t think there are enough differences between the two to justify ousting an incumbent. The fact that no one else on the city council supports Girvan should give voters serious reservations, at least it does me.
As far as predictions go: It’s pretty clear to me that Mayor Tomzak has the edge here, although a recent endorsement of Girvan by former Mayor Beck might make things interesting (even though the reason he gives is fairly unfounded according to Councilman Matthew Kelly).
GOP Rep. Vito Fossella’s blood alcohol level was .17, nearly twice the state legal limit, when he was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Alexandria, Va., in the early hours of Thursday, according to documents filed today in Alexandria General District Court.
It doesn’t even end there. On an episode of HBO’s The Sopranos, Tony Soprano and Paulie Walnuts stop in Culpeper on their way to Miami during the show’s final season. You can even hear them listening to a local Fredericksburg radio station while they’re driving. Well, OK, Tony and Paulie were from Jersey… but they did business with Johnny Sach and Phil Leotardo across the river, so it counts!
Of the 140 members of the Virginia General Assembly, it’s quite possible that none of them has had as good a 2008 so far as Sen. Edd Houck of Spotsylvania (and I’m not just saying that because he endorsed Obama for President). He’s been the go-to guy when it came to repealingSpeaker Howell’s god awful abuser fees, and totally smacked down Senate Republicans for playing politics with 4 year olds in defense of Gov. Kaine’s pre-K expansion plan.
Earlier this week, in an op-ed in the Culpeper Star-Exponent, Sen. Houck gives a nice rundown of what’s actually been accomplished in this year’s session; Access to Mental Health Drugs, Capital Projects, Substance Abuse Funding, Judicial Nominations, and a State Energy Plan. The op-ed, in it’s entirety, can be read here.
Hummel on Fair Trade:
Well now they can make it one in the past six years because Sen. 
Dan Conley has a great piece just published on 
WIlder, who was running to Robb’s left as an Independent, didn’t quit the race until the fall, and the Democratic Party in Virginia looked hopelessly fractured…
1985 Nobel Peace Prize winner Richard Cizik of Stafford has been named one of 
Our presumptive GOP nominee for Governor in 2009, 
Damn Yankees. First Eliot Spitzer comes down to DC to hook-up with a 
It doesn’t even end there. On an episode of HBO’s The Sopranos, Tony Soprano and Paulie Walnuts 
Of the 140 members of the Virginia General Assembly, it’s quite possible that none of them has had as good a 2008 so far as 
