Notes from the Capitol

Health care ruling puts Cuccinelli in national spotlight
A Virginia judge's ruling last week that the Federal Government can't make people buy Health Insurance was a major victory for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, raising the profile of the state's top lawyer well beyond the Old Dominion and leaving many to ponder what's next for the conservative firebrand. Cuccinelli's decision to fight President Obama's Health Care reforms in a Virginia court, rather than join another Lawsuit filed in Florida by 20 other states, surprised some and encouraged cri...

McDonnell eyes 'finality' in expedited suit
Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia defended his efforts Sunday to have the state's trial-court victory in its federal health reform Lawsuit bypass an appeals court and go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Asked by "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace about whether he just wants to "kill 'ObamaCare' before it gets rolling," Mr. McDonnell said he's really looking for a definitive answer for everybody. "Let's create finality for businesses, for citizens and for everybody ab...

Why It's Time to Impeach Ken Cuccinelli
You have to go back to such historical abominations as the Catholic Church's excommunication of Galileo, or the purges of Stalin's science chief Trofim Lysenko to find rough precedents. In American history, there are precious few examples of government actions against academia anything like Cooch's crusade. The closest that I could think of is the McCarthy era, when many intellectuals were harassed and intimidated for being real or alleged Communists. At least Joe McCarthy's paranoia was rooted...

Most Ridiculous Question Asked of Cuccinelli in ObamaCare Press Conference
Posted on 14 December 2010. This post was written by: Tom White Being Attorney General, one must develop a thick skin to deal with some people. Especially those who are out to trip you up and attempt to humiliate you at any cost. Especially if they are Progressive true believers in the now debunked Global Warming Hoax or the wonders of ObamaCare, both of which are in Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s cross-hairs. During the media Press Conference shortly after the opinion of Judge Hudson ...

O'Malley won't join McDonnell in calling for quick review of federal health law
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has rebuffed an offer by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) to join him in requesting an expedited Supreme Court review of this week's ruling by a Federal Judge in Virginia that part of the nation's massive new health law is Unconstitutional. "As you acknowledged on the phone, we have a difference of opinion on the underlying issue -- I believe that affordable healthcare for all Americans regardless of Pre-existing Conditions will strengthen our nation and ma...

O'Malley won't join McDonnell in calling for quick review of federal health law
John Wagner reports on the Maryland Politics blog that Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has rebuffed an offer by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) to join him in requesting an expedited Supreme Court review of this week's ruling by a Federal Judge in Virginia that part of the nation's massive new health law is Unconstitutional. "As you acknowledged on the phone, we have a difference of opinion on the underlying issue -- I believe that affordable healthcare for all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditi...

Silicon Valley 2.0
Start-Up Nation, the surprise best-seller about Israeli innovation, provided the theme for my four-day “Israel Innovation Summit,” sponsored by Beit Issie Shapiro, an Israeli non-profit organization that provides innovative services for Children with Special Needs. It’s a sort of Birthright for people curious as to why Israel is second only to the United States in the number of companies listed on NASDAQ and why its currency is one of the world’s strongest. On our final d...

Hits and misses
HIT Familiar seat As his predecessor did, new U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell will take a seat on the House Armed Services Committee when he is sworn in next month. The Virginia Beach car dealer was also tapped for the Homeland Security panel. Democrat or Republican, House leaders usually make sure Hampton Roads is well represented on Armed Services. Given the impending threat to Joint Forces Command, and the need for a new practice field to serve Oceana's pilots, Rigell - like his predecessor - begins ...

House approves defense bill with lower pay raise for military
The House passed a pared-down version of the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill on Friday that, at $725 billion, was still $17 billion above the Obama Administration's funding request. The House made one gesture in deference to rising public concern over Government Spending. It reduced next year's pay increase for Military personnel from the 1.9 percent lawmakers approved in the summer to 1.4 percent, the level President Obama proposed earlier this year. Obama announced this month that he...

Census to redeal congressional clout
WASHINGTON — The Northeast and Midwest are poised to lose as many as 10 seats in Congress, while Texas could gain four after the Census Bureau releases reapportionment data later this month, a Bloomberg analysis and other data shows. Nine states are projected to lose representatives to the House and eight are likely to gain, according to the Bloomberg forecast, which used 2008 and 2009 population estimates to predict 2010 populations for each state. The release of state population counts...

Behind the broccoli
What this country needs is a crop of healthy, Hunger-free kids -- and now, thanks to the hectoring of Michelle Obama and the terrible swift presidential pen of her husband, it has one: the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. No more fat kids is now the law of the land: Eat the broccoli; leave the cannoli. For nothing less than National Security is at stake. "Military leaders tell us that when more than one in four Young People are unqualified for military service because of their weight, c...

Soldiers get welcome home wedding surprise
Tom VanGundy and John Drake refused to let frigid, 14-degree conditions prevent them from fulfilling a joyous mission on Saturday. Perched on Honda motorcycles, the couple led a caravan of volunteers who not only welcomed Army 1st Lieutenants Anthony Huebner and Stephanie Thompson home from Afghanistan but also helped celebrate the couple's Wedding day. The Warriors' Watch Riders led a surprise 13-vehicle escort from Aurora's St. Rita of Cascia Catholic Church to a Wedding reception at the Rou...

ARMED FORCES: I Can't Stand It Any Longer
All day long, the phone rang in the Pentagon office of Navy Captain John G. Crommelin Jr. To each caller, blond, 46-year-old Captain Crommelin replied abruptly: "This telephone is tapped—you know that." The callers were fellow officers proffering him support. For John Crommelin had defiantly voiced what many of them thought, but had not dared to say: that the Navy's aviation was being destroyed under the guise of unification. An outstanding Navy aviator, the eldest of five A...

Scott appointed to Armed Services, Agriculture committees
U.S. Rep.-elect Austin Scott, R-Ga., has been appointed to the House Armed Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee. “These appointments will allow me to better represent my constituents in the 112th Congress,” The Tifton Gazette quoted Scott as saying in a news release. “I am proud to represent Robins Air Force Base and the thousands of servicemen and women, Veterans and others who call the Robins community home,” Scott said. “As a member of the House...

Open Thread and Diary Rescue
This evening's Rescue Rangers are claude, srkp23, vcmvo2, rexymeteorite, shayera, and BentLiberal, with watercarrier4diogenes taking time off from watching the FiddleStix National Championship to do his usual tidyin' up. The Rangers have rescued a nifty collection GOGB gives us The Scoop on Net Neutrality- Vote THIS TUESDAY. (srkp23) A coherent proposal from bibschol provokes some rational discussion about Splitting the Social Security Metaphors. (claude) kindler makes the case for Impeachment...

Legal leaders back Emanuels residency in court filing
Rahm Emanuel’s campaign Saturday filed a friend-of-the-court brief signed by many eminent standard-bearers of Chicago’s legal community arguing that Emanuel should be kept on the ballot. The brief is unusual in that it contained six pages of argument — most of which Emanuel’s attorneys have already made — but seven pages of biographies of the arguers. The list includes former Illinois Attorneys General Neil Hartigan and Tyron Fahner, former presidents of the Chicago...

The O'Reilly Factor Gets Into The Holiday Spirit By Smearing Eric Holder, Muslims And The ACLU
Perhaps it's not as festive as last year's ambush of an Elementary School principal, but having declared victory in the War on Christmas - yet again - Wednesday night (12/15/10), Bill O'Reilly teamed up with Dennis Miller to spread some holiday cheer for their audience by calling Muslims "whiny," comparing Attorney General Eric Holder to Neville Chamberlain and joking about substituting ACLU members for jackasses in a Nativity Scene. Ho, ho, ho. The discussion with Miller began with O’R...

Bank of America cuts off WikiLeaks payments
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Bank of America Corp said on Saturday it will not process payments intended for Wikileaks, which has angered U.S. authorities with the mass release of U.S. diplomatic cables. The largest U.S. bank by assets joins a growing group of Financial Services companies, including MasterCard, PayPal and Visa Europe, that are restricting payments to the global organization which has said its next large document release will be bank information. "This decision is bas...

Bank of America cuts off WikiLeaks payments
By Joe Rauch CHARLOTTE, North Carolina | Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:50am EST CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp said on Saturday it will not process payments intended for Wikileaks, which has angered U.S. authorities with the mass release of U.S. diplomatic cables. The largest U.S. bank by assets joins a growing group of Financial Services companies, including MasterCard, PayPal and Visa Europe, that are restricting payments to the global organization which has said its next ...

Mass. expected to lose House seat through Census
BOSTON — Massachusetts is expected to lose a Congressional Seat when the new Census figures are released. The U.S. Census Bureau will release the results of its once-a-decade count at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and all signs are toward a population shift from the North to the South — and a shift in U.S. House seats along with it. Massachusetts currently has 10 House seats. If, as expected, it loses one on Tuesday, state lawmakers will have to decide how to get rid of one congressman. Populati...

Census to show gains for red states
WASHINGTON — The 2010 Census report coming out tomorrow will include a boatload of good political news for Republicans and grim data for Democrats hoping to reelect President Obama and rebound from last month’s devastating Elections. The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its decennial report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the nation must reappo...

Will census bring Washington another U.S. representative?
Washington may be in line for more clout in Congress after new Census figures are released Tuesday. Early projections suggest the state will add a 10th Congressional Seat, thanks to high population growth compared with other parts of the country. The picture will become clear when the U.S. Census Bureau issues its state-by-state population breakdown Tuesday morning — a count that determines the once-a-decade reapportionment of the nation's 435 U.S. House seats. Washington is among eight ...

States wait for first numbers in 2010 Census
On Tuesday morning, the Federal Government will release the first set of numbers from the 2010 Census, showing the population of each state and of the nation as a whole. While the figures that come out on Tuesday lack the depth of releases planned for next year, their importance eclipses those more-detailed numbers. The populations released Tuesday will, as required every 10 years by the U.S. Constitution, determine how many seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives. Popula...

Why the Census may be bad news for Missouri Democrats
WASHINGTON — The Census will make clear on Tuesday what has been speculated about in Missouri political circles for a while: The state could lose a Congressional Seat effective the 2012 Elections. Democrats could be most at risk. Going into the 2011 Congress, they will hold only three seats in the nine-member House delegation because the party just lost Rep. Ike Skelton's district in the November Midterm Elections. But they might have trouble keeping that many. It depends on how the Rep...

Mass. expected to lose House seat through Census
BOSTON — Massachusetts is expected to lose a Congressional Seat when the new Census figures are released. The U.S. Census Bureau will release the results of its once-a-decade count at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and all signs are toward a population shift from the North to the South — and a shift in U.S. House seats along with it. Massachusetts currently has 10 House seats. If, as expected, it loses one on Tuesday, state lawmakers will have to decide how to get rid of one congressman. Populati...