Waldo’s Virginia Political Blogroll

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Make your own cat food.

It’s cheaper and better.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." -François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

Busted!!! “I think the education thing about me has been vetted to the point of exhaustion,” he told The Virginian-Pilot. “Other than you and my opponent, I don’t know who looks at this stuff.” Well, “this stuff” showed up in mailboxes throughout the 21st, unfortunately minus the little asterisk to a note saying “No, [...]

Sturday evening, Ben Tribbet of Not Larry Sabato and myself will be hosting a blogger happy hour in Prince William County in support of our business community, which also gives us the chance to poke Mexicanos Sin Fronteras in the eye a little bit with their irresponsible and ill-advised “boycott”, which by all accounts is failing anyways.  We can still help.  Come join us at Logan’s on Business 234 near Interstate 66 from 8-9 PM (and perhaps a little longer), support our local business community, and have some fun.

I’m hearing some elected officials and candidates from both sides of the aisle will be there.

Here are a few passages (as best as Howling Latina could construe) and context from Sen. John Warner's afternoon's press conference on the Rotunda steps at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville transcribed from the C-SPAN video.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson, builder and founder of UVA in summing up his prepared text:

"There is a fullness of time when men should go and not occupy too long the ground for which others have the right to advance.

"So I say with great humility and thankfulness in my heart, I yield that ground so that others can advance.”

Taking a few questions from the press after the speech.

On when he made his retirement decision:

Really, in the last day or two…I wanted to make one final trip to Iraq. That situation in Iran and Afghanistan occupies the major portion of my thinking every day of my life…

I have played, I am playing and I will continue to play a role in trying to bring about a cessation of that conflict such that it reflects nothing but dignity upon those men and women in the armed forces and indeed many civilians who serve in those theatres and are still serving.

As you may now, I was privileged to write the law which required the president to comment on a series of benchmarks, which he did on July 15. The law further requires the president to speak to the nation and the Congress on the 15th of September. And prior thereto the law requires Gen. Petraus and the United States ambassador to come before the Congress and give us their views.

There was another section that I put into the law, which I think is going to be a strong success. That is, I felt that we needed a totally independent analysis of the professional ability, today, tomorrow and in the future of the Iraqi security forces. Be they army or police.

On the question of retirement and speaking out against the Iraq war:

Now, by taking this action [retirement], no one can say, politics is going to dictate in one way or another how I’m going to decide to speak out what’s the best interest for this nation. I’m going to do that. I respectfully want to support the office of the president. He has clear, very clear constitutional responsibilities but the Congress also has its say in the framework. But my hope that maybe, maybe, we can reach in what might be a forthcoming debate, some bipartisanship to show that we’re moving together to try and resolve this conflict in a way that protects our vital interest as a nation in this whole region—not just Iraq. But you also have to have responsibility for our men and women in the army...

On having a favorite person in mind to replace him in the Senate:

Quick answer...no...My contribution is to step back and let the state work it..

On Virginia's junior senator, Jim Webb:

I’ve gotten to know a lot of senators and political figures…Jim Webb, for example, I wasn’t entirely sure, even though I’d known him through the years, just how he would work. But he’s been a strong working partner in the Senate. And particularly helpful to me in trying to provide the president with the names of individuals who can serve in the federal judiciary. That’s one of our main responsibilities…

On boosting Tom Davis candidacy (since he'll likely be the only congressman running for the seat in the GOP field):

I have no one in mind. I really feel that an experienced person must step up. I think within the ranks of the Republican members of Congress who I will now call momentarily and thank all of them for their work. We worked together very well as a team; all these 30 men and women that I have worked through the years. That’s the type of experience I hope will come forward to win this election.

On his greatest accomplishment in the Senate:

I have tried to pay back the United States military for all the things that it did for me in some three tours that I’ve had in many years past and many years in the reserves… That, together with trying to fix the little things in little villages and towns all across the state; these are marvelous people…

On the press:

You’ve been eminently fair to me. I don’t know what kind sort of hamburger you’ll chop up today and put out, but you have been fair to me. Tough but fair. I only mention that not to flatter you but I see other senators, literally, eviscerated day in and day out by elements of the press in their states. And be it a Republican or Democrat in our great state, that’s not happening. The press in our state are very hard working and responsible; they’ll dig down and get the truth. They’ll tell it fair and square.

On what lies ahead for the country:

These are critical times in our country…Precarious situation in so many parts of the word. Whether it’s Iran or Syria or Musharraf...

On how streakers ruined the 1972 UVA graduation ceremony where he was the commencement speaker and the president took him to his house and gave him a compulation of Shakespeare's work as a gift, quoting a passage that stood out:

"This above all, to thine own self be true.” Well, I have tried to do that; and more importantly, I have tried to be -- not only true to myself but true to all the people of this great commonwealth that I have served for now 29 years and to the people across America.

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A quick story: Back in the 1990s when I was writing Amiga software, we sent our products to magazines for reviews. Most of the time, we basically told the reviewer what to write, because the reviewers were usually too lazy or too rushed to really look at the software. You may be surprised to learn that we usually got good reviews. :) (This practice is not unusual in the software industry, by the way -- remember that when you're reading a rave review of some product or another.)

I mention that story because an article at The New Dominion today reminded me of those old magazine reviewers. There was so much quoting of Jim Riley in Chris Green's article Prank - or dirty trick? that I'm surprised Riley didn't get a writing credit.

[Quoting Jim Riley of Virginia Virtucon] “A number of people saw this [Joe Stanley's redirect of olddominionblogalliance.com to NAMBLA], and they were clicking on the link, and were shocked at what they saw,” Riley said. “One friend of mine works at the Pentagon - and he clicked on that while he was working at the Pentagon. He has top-secret security clearance. Places like that, they check what websites you visit. Fortunately, as soon as it came up, he clicked off of it, so there wasn’t any conflict to him.

There was no mention that Riley belongs to the same ODBA that Alton Foley does, who happens to work for the candidate that benefits from attacking Joe Stanley and his client Roscoe Reynolds, which seems like a pretty significant piece of information to leave out if you're really looking "for perspective on this."

Also, for people who may not be technically saavy, if Riley's friend at the Pentagon clicked onto the NAMBLA site, no matter how fast he "clicked off it," there's still a record of his going there, so obviously there must not have been any ill effects from clicking on it even at the super-sensitive Pentagon, which renders the argument of "accidentally clicking on the NAMBLA site could be catastrophic" moot.

Also, even more significantly, if I remember right, Joe Stanley the Cybersquatter had nothing to do with people accidentally clicking on NAMBLA -- the accidental link was an error on the part of Daily Whackjob, who put the link up without telling anyone what it really went to (which is a very common and somewhat annoying practice by bloggers, actually), which they have since apologized for. Otherwise a person would have had to accidentally open a browser and accidentally type "olddominionblogalliance.com" into the address bar to accidentally visit NAMBLA. (It's not on Google either.) (And by the way, it doesn't go to NAMBLA anymore, in case you're curious.)

Shouldn't the journalists be doing the writing instead of the story subjects?

Mark Tate’s attorney Ed MacMahon has asked the court to compel Jim Plowman to testify to answer questions in regard to Plowman’s pushing of stories on fomrer Leesburg Today reporter Charlie Jackson, who just left the paper last week.  Not Larry Sabato reported on this yesterday (link here) and went a bit overboard in assigning blame all the way up to Ed Gillespie at the White House.  Northern Virginia Daily did the biggest story on it (link here) and also posted MacMahon’s motion, which makes for very interesting reading.

This only makes Plowman look bad - I don’t see how you can automatically tar and feather Jill Holtzman-Vogel with this.  Even Tate and MacMahon state in the filing that they believe that Holtzman-Vogel did not know about Plowman’s actions.  After the judge slapped Plowman’s wrist for over relying on the testimony of Dale Polen Myers in the Susan Van Wagonner case, this further establishes Plowman as an overly political Commonwealth’s Attorney.  He should immediately distance his actions from Holtzman-Vogel and accept full responsibility.  Her upcoming tough election battle does not need this mess.

From the National Hurricane Center

To try something I really have no business doing.  Enjoy the Labor Day weekend.

Chris Graham is the Executive Editor of The New Dominion and writes for The Augusta Free Press. His top story this week is titled Prank or dirty trick? He addresses the ODBA- Joe Stanley, Roscoe Reynolds issue. Read it here. Chris had contacted the Roscoe campaign about this and he has yet to receive a reply, Silence. As quite as a yellow dog logo disappearing from his website. He also contacted

Tony Snow said this about the next White House press secretary Dana Perino: “a smart, capable person who is able to spell out the issues of the day in a way that people listening on TV can understand.”

TV indeed.  Replacing Tony Snow might be just a stepping stone.  Perino might actually be angling for Alex Trebek’s job.
From an April 2007 White House press briefing:

Q Yes, thank you, Dana. Two questions on American business. In the –
MS. PERINO: American business for 200. (Laughter.) I’ve always wanted to be on that show.

We hope her job’s not already in Jeopardy.

Life is filled with irony. It is rather ironic that mere days after the untimely death of Richard Jewell, a man whose reputation was destroyed by the collective incompetence of the media after the Atlanta Olympics bombing in 1996 -- a man whose untimely death was recently reported widely by the media almost as if they were trying to seek atonement for their previous misdeed -- we now see Sen. Larry Craig's reputation and career being destroyed by the exact same media.

At this point it really doesn't matter whether he's guilty or innocent, gay or straight. He's been tried and convicted by cable news. He's just a sound bite now -- just "that guy from the men's room stall." He might as well go ahead and join the George Allen Macaca Survivor's club. Maybe they can hang out with the Duke lacrosse team.

(I may sound a bit bitter because, personally, I thought the leaked audio tape did more to incriminate the arresting officer than Sen. Craig.)

At some point after their duet, Bono pitched this song to an aging Frank Sinatra, apparently more than once.

Ten years earlier, maybe Frank would’ve taken it, and it would have been great, no doubt.

Bono ended up singing it at Frank’s 80th Birthday Concert back in 1995, and didn’t do bad at all for an Irish rocker ;).

Apologies in advance for the German translation at the beginning:

Frank Sinatra and Bono:

And, yet, it worked.

I've accomplished a few of the things on the List of Things I Want to Do Before I Die.

I realized earlier this summer that I didn't want to be the guy who, on his deathbed, deeply regrets that he never owned a truly bitchen motorbike. Managed to check that one off the list. I'm a passable guitar player. I've smoked dope on the sacrificial altar at Pisac, outside Cuzco in Peru. I've been paid to write something.

But so far I've never owned a pedal steel guitar.

Dear god, I love that instrument. The way a good player can make it just weep and swoop and wail and cry and boogie and rip your still-beating heart out and show it to you before you die. Jesus Christ, what a marvelously expressive instrument! Desperately difficult to play, quirky as hell (I've been given to understand that the wiring between the pedals and the string-bending mechanism can, in a bind, be replaced with a goddamned bicycle spoke, for all love!), yet its sound is so goddamned archetypically American. It's been wholly appropriated by the Nashville-corporate country hell I think of as "some cunt in a cowboy hat," but it was not always so.

Back in the early Seventies, the immortal Clarence White (of whom a whole adulatory blog-post needs desperately to be scribed) began to show how the "regular" electric guitar could emulate a pedal steel. He and Gene Parsons of the Byrds (not Gram, but Gene, the drummer) cobbled together a bizarre aftermarket mod for a Telecaster called the "B-bender," which allows the player to pull the B string sharp by pushing down on the part of the guitar held by the forward strap. Like all lovable and cranky human inventions, it's weird and beautiful, and in the hands of a master player, it gives some great pedal-steel effects. (You can hear it at work in the live parts of "Byrds (Untitled)," one of my favorite albums in all of time and space.)

The emotional effect of the pedal steel -- the whole "weeping" effect -- is accomplished by bending some strings upward or downward while others remain stationary. What this achieves is the sound of movement within a chord without a change in the chord's tonality. (To be pedantic, it also allows you to change, say, a IV chord to a I chord by simply stretching a string.) You can do this to a limited extent on a standard guitar by pulling some strings sharp while leaving others unbent -- what we guitar-floggers call a "double-stop bend."

And sweet Jesus on a stick do I love doing double-stop bends. It makes me one with my idols.

Here I've put on my Nudie Suit and taken on one of the great Kozmik-Kountry anthems of all time, the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City." As far as the original is concerned, it's probably the "Purple Haze" of pedal-steel culture, with Sneaky Pete Kleinow just shredding the conventions of the genre. My version, while rather less radical, shows how the standard guitar can at least vaguely emulate the pedal steel's immense tonal palette.

So, without further academic ado,

Sin City (pops)

As you listen, you might want to consider how utterly amazingly this anthem, written for the Nixon years, applies to our Present Circumstances...