As most blog readers know by now, Raising Kaine, the Virginia blogosphere’s blogfather, will cease publication in the near future. (All good things must come to an end.) Out of the ashes has arisen Blue Commonwealth, and while it won’t be the same, we can hope that it will serve a similarly valuable purpose. At Cobalt6, we can’t help but think that the name of the new blog is particularly inspired, and we look forward to close collaboration! Be sure to register for an account at Blue Commonwealth in order to be an active participant. (Sign up for a Cobalt6 account, too, if you don’t already have one!)  

Continue reading " Introducing Blue Commonwealth "

Wow. I went by the new 800 West Broad Street today and took a good look at what is going on there. Wow. For out of towners, newbies, and normal people who do not obsess with local miasma, let me…

Continue reading " Falls Church Flower Power "

Just a quick reminder that the NoVA Regional Farm Team meeting is Sunday, December 7 at 1:30pm at the Broadway 502 West Broad Street (entrance on Lee Street) in Falls Church. RSVP to Leslie Byrne.
      

Continue reading " Reminder: NoVA regional meeting Sunday "

From The Politico:”We had John McCain and Mike Huckabee and Gov. Romney and Rudy Giuliani, but Sarah Palin came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite. We packed the houses everywhere we went. And…

Continue reading " Chambliss: “Palin Allowed Us To Peak” "

… Commerce Secretary is a great launching pad.  Gets you mighty famous.  Just ask Herbert Hoover.

Continue reading " Cheer Up, Bill Richardson…. "

Via the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League, here’s some interesting insight by Delegate Bob Marshall on how Speaker Bill Howell consigns pro-Second Amendment bills to the House of Delegate’s “Death Star” subcomittee in order to get them killed.  Is this the opening salvo of another effort to replace the Speaker?  With Marshall’s strong run for the [...]

Continue reading " Bob Marshall’s Opening Salvo "

The Guardian profiles my favorite news aggregater:
If you want to know what’s happening in the world, then Memorandum will tell you – at least in a couple of areas. It’s an automated news clipping service, known in the trade as a “news aggregator”. It provides headlines and short texts updated every few minutes, with links [...]

Continue reading " The Best Place For News "

The other day, Mrs. X and Xrlq 3.0 had goopy, crusty eyes. A trip to Web MD correctly diagnosed their problem as Pink Eye, and a context-sensitive ad directed us to SouthParkStudios.com.

Continue reading " GoogleAds Is a Waste of Money "

I’m hearing from ground that at the upcoming Advance, the John Brownlee campaign is using campaign funds to pay to bus and register supporters to the event so they can vote in the AG straw poll. Like much of Brownlee’s…

Continue reading " AG Race: Word On The Street "

Introducing the brand-new Capitol Visitors Center:
To understand how the building earned the unofficial title of The Anatomy of a Congressional Boondoggle, it is necessary to go back four years, to Nov. 30, 2004, when The Washington Post published a story on a report from the Congressional Accountability Office.
The report found that construction of the center [...]

Continue reading " A Fitting Monument "

A cover, by definition, offers a new take on the original work.   This is almost always interesting to me, even when it turns out that I prefer the original.  Some covers, however, leave me wondering why the second artist even bothered.  What surprises me in this case is the success that met the cover - [...]

Continue reading " Midweek Makeover: Please Don’t "

Pasting Brian Moran here: And showing how he will win back the state for Republicans by solving problems with real conservative solutions that have and will work. Bob McDonnell realizes that a new kind of campaign is needed here in…

Continue reading " This Is What Governor McDonnell Will Sound Like "

Although this Reuters article seems to be for informational purposes only, take a closer look.  The main purpose of this article is that the more each state spends on healthcare, the healtier it is; thus, setting the stage for universal health care.  If you think that government healthcare is good, take a trip to your [...]

Continue reading " Louisiana ranked least healthiest state "

In this interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson, President George W. Bush blames the Iraq War on a failure of intelligence. For this president, it is always somebody else’s fault.

We all know now (and many of us argued then) that Bush had predetermined that he wanted to get Saddam and the talk of WMD was all designed to sell war to the American people. Now he blames it on faulty intelligence. I do too - on his. And the media’s. And ours.

A portion of the transcript:

Gibson: You’ve always said there’s no do-overs as president. If you had one –

Bush: The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said, you know … the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn’t just people in my administration, and um … You know, that’s not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.

Gibson: If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war?

Bush: If he had had weapons of mass destruction, would there have been a war? Absolutely.

Gibson: No, if you had known he didn’t.

Bush: Oh, I see what you’re saying. Uh … You know, that’s an interesting question. That is a do-over I can’t do. It’s hard for me to speculate.

~~~

Oh hell, just watch it and listen to the weasel’s answers for yourself.

Continue reading " The Buck Stops (Not) Here "

In Hedgpeth v. Pulido, the U.S. Supreme Court explained yesterday in essence that when the trial court commits certain kinds of error with regard to the jury instructions, the appeals court should consider “whether the flaw in the instructions ‘had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.’”

Continue reading " If a tree’s rights are violated in the woods but nobody hears it, does it make a sound? "

Not too long ago, I finally went to Mr. K’s used books in Johnson City - an amazing place, until you consider, for example, all the bookshops in Charlottesville.

Continue reading " On used books "

Years ago, I bought a copy of the Manual on Complex Litigation, because it was referenced in some order I had in case that was transferred as part of multi-district litigation.

More recently, I discovered that the later edition is downloadable for free from the Federal Judicial Center website.

There’s a lot of forms and other good stuff in there, worth consulting even when you aren’t in a case that is totally too big and complex.

Continue reading " We love free stuff "

The joy boys at the Examiner’s “Yeas & Nays” have it nailed:
3: Rank of Barack Obama in Yahoo’s top searches for 2008, ranking him behind Britney Spears and WWE wrestling.
Yes, Britney Spears is that powerful.
In fact, looking at what search terms drive the most traffic to Extreme Mortman, guess which ranks at the top?
Yes — [...]

Continue reading " Britney Spears Us From Irrelevancy "

Today, President-elect Barack Obama tapped Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce. Richardson is currently Governor of New Mexico. An Hispanic, Richardson has also served in the House of Representatives, as Secretary of Energy, and as U.N. Ambassador.

In some administrations the Commerce Department is seen as second-tier, but Ron Brown, President Clinton’s first Secretary of Commerce, used it to promote American business around the globe. With his long resume, history of working across party lines, and the current recession, Bill Richardson will be a key player in the Obama Administration and our economic recovery. I thought he’d make a great VP candidate and am glad he is getting a prominent cabinet position.

A bristly footnote - Richardson had sported a beard which is now gone. In response to a reporter’s question, Obama said he thought it was a mistake for Richardson to get rid of it because it was part of his rugged western look. But, he then speculated that “it was scratchy when he kissed his wife, so he was forced to get rid of it.”

Continue reading " Bill Richardson for Commerce "

As noted in comments to an earlier posting, we had a good crowd attending the first session of Progress Augusta, the local chapter of Drinking Liberally. Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press was there to both participate and cover the festivities.

Continue reading " AFP Reports on Progress Augusta "