Too blatantly Christian???????

I can’t believe that 56 men signed a document to secure liberty, and today a cross can’t be seen at a July 4th celebration.

But that’s what’s happening.

A federal judge in Norfolk told a Christian group that there was no room at the Free Speech Inn for them, and they couldn’t even have the stable in the back.

A Christian group set up a 12-foot cross last year and Chesapeake city officials had a cow!

The group alleges that city employees said the cross was “too blatantly Christian,” but the employees said during Tuesday’s court hearing that they had the cross removed for safety reasons. (Virginian-Pilot)

Safety reasons? They weren’t planning a crucifixion.

And what the heck is “too blatantly Christian????” I missed that term in the bill of rights. Americans are “endowed by their Creator” to be as blatantly Christian as they darn well please!

This year, someone had a totally unrelated (yeah right!) suggestion of banning objects “over 8 feet.” Amazing coincidence, huh?

So, to federal court they went, and Judge Doumar supported the ban, but at least didn’t hide behind the “safety” issue smokescreen.

Judge Doumar said the Christian group has a right to free speech but they “don’t have to shout.”

Don’t remember volume being a key component of the bill of rights.

It’s amazing! Judges will support every form of pornography, violence, immorality no matter how destructive, but someone wants to display a cross, and here comes government to make sure no one sees it.

Safety? Those who surrender liberty to obtain safety deserve neither liberty nor safety, said Ben Franklin. I think I’ll take his words over Chesapeake city officials and a Norfolk judge over what the founders really thought of free speech.

Monument - “Tear Down this Wall”

Micheal Reagan is launching an effort to build a monument at the sight where President Ronald Reagan spoke the famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Berlin city leaders are in talks with Reagan about a possible statue or bust to be located at Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate, but the final location is not decided, nor is how it will be funded.

When Kennedy visited in 1963 and declared “Ich bin ein Berliner,” a legendary statement of solidarity with besieged West Berliners, they greeted him with exultation.
«The small plaque … commemorating the ‘I am a Berliner’ speech next to the front of Rathaus Schoeneberg is located on a much larger city square that bears Kennedy’s name, Michael Reagan noted. “There is no square, street, Platz, statue or bust, or other commemorative site in Berlin named for my father.” (full story)

It’s time.

Obama’s a centrist?

It takes the New York Times to declare Barack Obama a “centrist” - curiously only after he finally secured the nomination from Hillary Clinton, of course.

Paul Krugman, the famed economist and Reagan critic who served as an Enron board member, thinks Obama is a centrist. In fact, he thinks he’s about as centrist as the last centrist President America had, in Krugman’s opinion, Bill Clinton

I respect a good spin effort, but this isn’t spin. This is lunacy!

Progressive activists, in particular, overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama during the Democratic primary even though his policy positions, particularly on health care, were often to the right of his rivals’. In effect, they convinced themselves that he was a transformational figure behind a centrist facade.

They may have had it backward.

Then again, they may not. Obama has campaigned on raising taxes on everyone with a capital gain (translation - a retirement plan besides social security), keeping gas prices high, surrendering in Iraq while we’re winning, and government health care for all paid for by force by taxpayers or businesses.

Is that what passes for “centrist” nowadays?

Krugman rails over and over against Reagan, calling him an “unabashed conservative” with an “ideological agenda.” But Clinton was a centrist.

Reagan’s electoral victories: 1014 to 62
Clinton’s electoral victories: 749 to 327

Centrist, huh? Lesson learned, never count on an Enron economic advisor when it comes to numbers.

Seriously, read Obama’s website. Read his economic policies. Read his tax proposals. Read how much spending he wants to increase.

And the New York Times calls that “centrist”

What was Karl Marx? A moderate?

Creigh Deeds reduces congestion 0.0015%

In the current special session, no bills have passed the House and only 6 have passed the Senate.

With what’s been offered, the House looks better.

But the Senate did pass one bill that almost made me laugh out loud. Sen Creigh Deeds, trying to look good for statewide office, has jumped on the “telecommuting” bandwagon by offering a tax credit for it.

Shame it won’t do anything.

SB 6013 offers a $1,200 tax credit to employers per telecommuting employee. It caps the program at a million dollars a year.

That means a whopping 833 Virginia drivers will be taken off the roads. DMV lists 5.8 million Virginia drivers, and just those registered here(not tourists, not out-of-staters). But for kindness, we’ll use that figure.

Deeds’ bill will take 00.0015% of cars off the road! Thanks to the innovative work of Creigh Deeds, instead of 5,800,000 drivers on the road, we could get it down to 5,799,167!

And let’s not forget that Deeds raids the General Fund (schools and health care) to pay that million dollar tax credit.

Legislators are home this week. At this point, they should stay there for about six more months.

Message from John Hager

Greetings!

As I have reflected over the past three weeks and throughout my nearly thirty years as an active Republican, one thing has always stood firm in my mind - being true to our Conservative principles is critical to electing Republicans at every level. I have always made that my priority and am proud of what I have done as an individual and for the Republican Party.

I am also humble enough to realize that my accomplishments would not have occurred without the hard work and sacrifice of others.

Thank you for all that you have done to support my efforts and all you have done for our Party. Without your hard work none of what we have accomplished would ever have been realized.

While we did not win this time, I am confident that a great deal of good came out of our efforts. We left our Party with a sound balance sheet and out of debt. We left our party with plans in place to grow the membership. Most of all, we left our Party with a greater sense of identity. It is this identity as the Party of low taxes, strong defense, and individual liberty that will move our Republican Party forward.

In the future I will do what I have done for the last three decades - assist Republicans in defeating Democrats. I urge you to get behind all of our Republican nominees. John McCain must win Virginia. Jim Gilmore needs our assistance to defeat Mark Warner. Each and every one of our Congressional candidates is depending on us. They have my full support and need yours as well. Working together, I know Republicans will be victorious in November.

Again, thank you for all that you have done. Please keep in touch at either johnhager1@comcast.net or 804-754-6698.

John Hager

Let’s remember who said this

“When we first built our highways, we paid for them with a gas tax, a highway user fee that charged those of us who benefited most from the system. It was a fair concept then, and it is today. But that levy has not been increased in more than 23 years. And it no longer covers expenses. The money for today’s improvements will come from increasing the gas tax, or the highway user fee, by the equivalent of a nickel a gallon — about $30 a year for most motorists.”

Ronald Reagan 1982

Is Kaine’s plan a decoy?

Right Wing Liberal just might be right!

That tells me that real target here isn’t Kaine’s trial balloon, but what Majority Leader Saslaw is cooking up.

Absolutely! Why else to you think Kaine’s plan wasn’t even offered in the Senate. Saslaw’s carrying the ball, and Kaine (just like a good Mayor would) doesn’t care as long as he gets consensus on something, even if it isn’t his plan.

Voting on party lines, the Democrat-controlled Senate finance committee this morning endorsed legislation raising the gasoline tax a penny per gallon - per year - for the next six years. (RTD)

If that makes the House, it may just pass if it hits the floor. Howell’s only chance really is to kill it in Finance.

“The plan was never going to be exactly as proposed,” Kaine said this morning, speaking during his monthly call-in show on WTOP radio in Northern Virginia. “If everybody gets a plan on the table, we’ll cobble together some kind of plan and make it work.”

And if that plan fixes the state’s highway maintenance deficit and provides regional relief to Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, “I’m not going to veto it,” Kaine said. “We’re going to make it happen.” (RTD)

And right now, it’s Saslaw’s gas tax that has the momentum.

Armstrong apologizes to lobbyists

Del. Ward Armstrong, Democrat Minority Leader in the House of Delegates, reportedly has been apologizing to lobbyists for Governor Kaine’s transportation bill, which Armstrong is carrying in the House of Delegates. Several sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed this as late as yesterday.

HB 6026 raises taxes on everything sold in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, plus every home and every car sold in Virginia.

Word is he isn’t happy about it, and is telling lobbyist after lobbyist not to blame him for the bill, and that he’s carrying it as a favor to the Governor.

Meanwhile, Kaine’s bill has found NO patrons in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

How far is Kaine’s “special session” going to go when Democrats aren’t even agreeing with him?

Insanity

Current recommendations of the hospital of John Hinkley, the man who shot President Ronald Reagan and others in order to impress Jody Foster:

* Leave of consecutive days up to 10

* Access to a driver’s license

* Permission to do community volunteer work.

Are they insane? See, Hinkley has up to five current girlfriends. The guy needs to get around.

Hinkley currently has permission for six-day leaves to see his parents. Seems he’s got a few broader ambitions for his time.

The federal government is objecting to these requests - Thank God!!!!

Let’s hope sanity in government continues past the November elections.

Marty Williams in the Washington Post

Many quotes on transportation were gathered in anticipation of next week’s special session on transportation, including those of the founder of this blog, Marty Williams. From the Washington Post:

Former state senator Martin E. Williams, a moderate Republican from Newport News: “I wouldn’t predict anything monumental. . . . You just can’t tax yourself out of this problem. I think we have dug such a big hole with transportation we will never be able to fix it. We need a whole new vision, something very different, such as making people telecommute one day a week. We should have done something on transportation six or seven years ago.”

Glenn Oder’s bill protecting the transportation trust fund might fare well.

Charlie Davis, a lobbyist in Richmond since the early 1980s: “At the end of the day, maybe putting a ‘lockbox’ on transportation funds, maybe a local taxing authority, but that is it.

Maybe even a VDOT audit? (Del. Oder’s bill also)

Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee: “I haven’t had much luck getting the speaker or my caucus to do any statewide increase. I predict my caucus passes out local plans for Northern Virginia and then requires [VDOT] to do an efficiency audit.”

Let’s just say no one’s hopes are very high. It may be the quickest session in history, or it might drag on for days.

Beat the Gridlock!

A new website has popped up to highlight transportation going into the special session.

www.beatthegridlock.com

If you live or work in Virginia, your future is at stake! If we don’t fix transportation now, we may never be able to fix it. Statewide, delay is costing millions of dollars per day, more than it would cost to build the roads we need. Help us beat the drum for new transportation funding … to Beat The Gridlock.

It makes the economic development argument for new highways to help Dulles International Airport and the Port of Hampton Roads, saying “no stronger economic engines in the Commonwealth of Virginia, no greater source of jobs, no greater contributor to state and local tax rolls.”

Woh! Boy, did they leave themselves open on that one! If they generate so many taxes, why aren’t those being used to fund new roads that will benefit them, as Sen. Ken Stolle proposes.

Stolle also wants to redirect 30 percent of all future increases in tax revenues from Hampton Roads ports to local transportation projects. Those port-related taxes currently are used for other state services. (Virginian-Pilot)

But the main point is to encourage citizens to contact legislators to address Transportation this Monday, and the website gives great ways for you to make your views known.

Myspace, Printable banners, email you legislator - it’s got ‘em all.

We’ll see if the economic argument for roads makes the point as we enter next week’s General Assembly session

Reagan fighting for Democracy

Read a phenomenal Reagan speech today. Given on July 18th to the House of Commons in 1982, and Reagan laid out the groundwork for confronting the “Evil Empire” even then.

So, let us ask ourselves, “What kind of people do we think we are?” And let us answer, “Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.”

See, Reagan wouldn’t have sat in the corner and play diplomacy with tyrants. He saw that America only remained free if we helped others gain freedom.

It would be cultural condescension, or worse, to say that any people prefer dictatorship to democracy. Who would voluntarily choose not to have the right to vote, decide to purchase government propaganda handouts instead of independent newspapers, prefer government to worker-controlled unions, opt for land to be owned by the state instead of those who till it, want government repression of religious liberty, a single political party instead of a free choice, a rigid cultural orthodoxy instead of democratic tolerance and diversity.

The left who hinted that the Iraqi people would rather have not been freed would’ve been verbally decimated by the Gipper with a grin.

I’ve often wondered about the shyness of some of us in the West about standing for these ideals that have done so much to ease the plight of man and the hardships of our imperfect world. This reluctance to use those vast resources at our command reminds me of the elderly lady whose home was bombed in the blitz. As the rescuers moved about, they found a bottle of brandy she’d stored behind the staircase, which was all that was left standing. And since she was barely conscious, one of the workers pulled the cork to give her a taste of it. She came around immediately and said, “Here now — there now, put it back. That’s for emergencies.”

Well, the emergency is upon us. Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

Take that, Obama!

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