Survey USA has updated its well-publicized (and somewhat questioned) poll on the 5th District Congressional race. Back in July, the polling group had Robert Hurt up a whopping 23 points on incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello. It was widely assumed that the gap would shrink – and probably wasn’t that large anyway.

Well, if Survey USA is an outlier, they’re doubling down: the new poll has Hurt up 26 points.

FWIW, when it comes to Virginia elections, Survey USA was the first pollster to notice Tim Kaine leading Jerry Kilgore (Kaine won by 6 points) and the first one to see a landslide sweep for the GOP ticket last year (all won by more than a dozen points). It also has a larger sample than the AAF poll from a couple of weeks ago which had Hurt up only six.

The battle among the pollsters could be almost as interesting as the one among the candidates.

Cross-posted to RWL

In today’s time there is another violation of justice in America. This injustice is found in the form of abortion. Millions of unborn babies have been denied equal protection under the law based on their status in life. This is an injustice that has put a stain on our nation.

However, just as  Martin Luther King stood up for justice and civil rights in his time, a new generation of civil rights leaders have arisen to stand for justice in this time. One of the most vocal voices has been that of Dr. King’s niece Dr. Alveda King. Dr. King recently spoke at the rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave a stirring speech calling for a revival of our God given liberties. Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union, has written a powerful column describing Dr. King’s historic speech. The speech was a clarion call for the new justice movement. It emphasized the need for Americans to not look at themselves in terms of racial divisions, but rather she exhorted us to look at ourselves in terms of the “human race.” The speech was truly historic.

A new civil rights movement is emerging in America today. This movement is seeking to extend the blessings of liberty to all people, including the unborn. It is not an attempt to “hijack” the original civil rights movement. Rather, it is taking the principles of liberty and justice from the original movement and is applying them to all of today’s challenges.

This new and exciting movement is not limited by race. It does not see White, Black, Hispanic, or any other race , but rather envisions a “human race.” This new justice movement is a powerful force in the American political scene. At its core it understands the principle that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

(cross posted at the Freedom Federation network)

Among those state agencies affected the worst were DMV, who had trouble issuing license renewals, and the Department of Social Services, where briefly there was concern that benefits would be delayed. Also affected were the Departments of Taxation, Juvenile Justice, and Environmental Quality. The State Board of Elections and VITA (who runs the system!) were also on that list.

Now, according to today’s RTD, Senior lawmakers want an independent investigation of the problem. Governor McDonnell has also called for an “independent third party” to investigate.

Former Chesterfield Delegate Sam Nixon was appointed to be Chief Information Officer of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency just this past March. In part, Nixon was appointed because the VITA/Northrop Grumman partnership has been replete with problems from the beginning.

With the latest problems resting on his doorstep, one has to wonder if Nixon wouldn’t prefer to be back in his safely Republican house district.

Assuming, that is, that the State Board of Elections could find his records.

Of course, Clark is like most Americans who struggle with this endemic problem.

According to creditcards.com, which tracks these sorts of statistics, Americans who have credit cards carry a balance of nearly $16,000 and the total U.S. consumer debt is $2.4 trillion. (Not to mention the over $40,000 each taxpayer now owes for our federal government’s spending spree)

So what does this have to do with Clark?

On August 28, the Daily Progress ran a story detailing Clark’s woes with personal finance showing that he declared bankruptcy in 1993 and has a history of health care-related debt in the 1980’s.

Clark, who is a Tea Party activist, however, says that his experience with debt, and its financial ramifications, gives him a greater appreciation for what 5th District voters are facing during this recession.

That’s all well and good, but it’s a subjective argument – not one which may bring him many votes. However, what should be of concern to Hurt is that the mere appearance of bullying brings Clark – a candidate with little chance of winning – empathy.

Clark, again, is an independent. While he is an active member of the tea party, his status is not the same as a Paul (R-KY), Miller (R-AK) or Angle (R-NV), who all won the backing of independent, conservative Republicans to win the GOP nomination.

By being a true independent, the only role Clark might play right now is that of spoiler in the general election between the Republican, Robert Hurt, and Democratic incumbent, Tom Perriello. And, the most likely person that Clark will damage in the race is the Republican – as evidenced by the recent tea party insurgence.

The tea party is a conservative movement, so it stands to reason that when candidates run with a tea party association, they are either dynamically changing the GOP from within or are a threat to peel votes away in the general. It’s one of the reasons 2nd District GOP nominee Scott Rigell has attempted to reconcile with the movement.

This reality, of the tea party being conservative and loosely associated with the GOP, makes it interesting that Clark was approached by Mark Lloyd of the Lynchburg Tea Party not long ago and asked to drop out of the race because of rumors that Clark’s past debt might come to light during the course of the campaign.

Why would the tea party want Clark out of the race?

According to the Daily Progress:

“If [the person who tipped off the media regarding Clark’s debt] steps forward, explains how they came into possession of these documents and says who paid for them, we will drop our candidacy,” Clark said.

In order to drop out, Clark said, certain conditions must first be met. The person or persons who tipped off the media, he said, must reveal themselves, must say how they came in possession of the documents, disclose if they were compensated, reveal any political or campaign affiliation and say on whose behalf they gathered the information.

Because the 5th District is such a close race between Perriello and Hurt, the Republican will need all the votes he can get. While both the Hurt and Perriello campaigns have declined to comment on this issue, the most likely person wanting Clark out of the race is Hurt.

The likelihood of the tipster coming out is unlikely. However, given Clark’s play, is it possbile now that this will boomerang on the Hurt campaign, regardless of whether they were involved or not? Instead of Clark being damaged by the revelations, will he be now seen as a martyr – the guy who has the same problems as millions of Americans – facing an uphill climb against that which the tea party has labeled the Murkowski’s of the world: the national GOP insiders? Will voters of the 5th District begin to sympathize with Clark?

Whether or not Hurt was involved, I would certainly not want to be on the side of “no comment.” And, rightly or wrongly, Hurt may be blamed for this as the politics of personal destruction.

The union movement has the distinct displeasure of being associated with organized crime and unsavory characters like Jimmy Hoffa and Andy Stern. At my school, George Mason University, the stench of lies, deceit, and thuggery of the Service Employees International Union permeates the campus, giving students a firsthand look at how low the union movement has sunk. Recent examples range from the invasion of property of a Bank of America worker and scaring his home alone child to SEIU thugs beating up a protestor in St. Louis – union members have a long shameful history of violence. As more of these tactics reach the light, the more people are turned off by their failed message.

Another reason for their decline is found in simple economics. Unions clamor for higher wages and better benefits – and who wouldn’t lobby for such things? The problem is when you make such demands through collective bargaining, resulting in acquiescence by a company, the overall economy suffers. In order for any company to give its workers higher wages and increased benefits they must draw from company profits. That means higher costs are passed to the consumer, decreased production limits supply and increases demand, new jobs cannot be created, and competition is stifled. Unionized companies can’t compete in a nonunionized world – that’s why General Motors is failing and Honda is thriving.

In any industry sector when a merit based system is utilized the most talented and hardest working employees are given higher wages and better benefits because their productivity leads to higher profits for the company. Union leaders don’t understand basic economics or, more likely, they don’t care. They fight to prevent dismissal for even the most incompetent. Ineffectual workers lead to decreased profits, unsafe working conditions, and drives wages of productive workers down while passing on the bill to the consumer.

To further emphasize this point look no further than the American auto industry. Up until obligatory reorganization with their government bailout, the United Auto Workers Union forced General Motors to pay laid off workers almost full wages and benefits for up to ten years after leaving the job . If you purchased a car from General Motors prior to January 2009, then part of the sticker price went to these controversial “job banks” to pay former employees to do absolutely nothing.

In New York City teachers awaiting disciplinary hearings for offenses as serious as sexual misconduct are still paid their full salary. Some teachers sit in these “reassignment centers” for up to 6 years, costing taxpayers around $65 million a year . Is it fair for Americans to pay up to $70,000 a year per offender in education taxes to the salary of some sexual predator that sits around and plays solitaire all day?

Unions have outlived their usefulness. Stricter laws enacted in the past few decades combined with a vigilant judicial system prevent the most egregious of labor violations. The economy, even in its current state, still is conducive for unskilled and skilled Americans to find work. The media often serves as a check to unfair labor practices, exposing and ultimately decimating violators.

The writing is on the wall. That is why you see union pushing hard for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would replace the secret-ballot union forming process with publicly signed cards, leaving the procedure open to intimidation – one of the last desperate attempts of a dying movement.

As unions fade deeper into obscurity we shouldn’t shed a tear. These corrupt and inefficient organizations have been sticking it to the American consumer and taxpayer for a long time. While they assuredly will not pass away quietly, let’s do everything we can to make unions a nothing more than a bitter memory.

Ball, who originally reported a net worth of about $100,000 in 2009, has become a millionaire in the past year due, at least in part, to the liquidation of stock options in the educational software company she worked for, K-12, Inc.

Foley points out “substantial and serious omissions between what was reported, what is seemingly required by the published instructions, and Candidate Ball’s husband’s statement as reported in the April 21, 2010 Virginia Gazette.”

A statement released to the media goes onto say:

“Foley is puzzled at how a mysterious one to five million dollars appeared out of nowhere in a horrible market. This is not a game or some stunt he said. What we see here simply doesn’t happen overnight and there needs to be a detailed explanation of why it was not initially reported.

“Candidate Ball states that she will improve Congressional Ethics by increasing disclosure, Foley noted. Yet when it became time to disclose what amounts to between one and five million dollars worth of stock options, advice was sought on how to handle and, contrary to the committee’s published opinion to err on the side of disclosure, the options were not disclosed.”

Foley has also asked the First Congressional District Democratic committee to look into the matter as a matter of principle: “the bottom line for any District Committee Chairman is to uphold the integrity of the seat.”

The Ball campaign denies any wrong-doing and claims this is a politically-motivated “witch hunt.”

One of the more frequent phrases from the left has been how “costly” the war has been both in lives lost (which is certainly true), but also in resources. From this phrase, they have started to create a meme that the war actually has led us to the great debt we face today. For example:

“It was under Mr Bush that the deficit spiraled out of control as we fought an unnecessary and endless $3,000bn war in Iraq…”
– James Carville, Financial Times.

“The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending. You can’t spend $3 trillion — yes, $3 trillion — on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home.”
– Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Washington Post.

“First, the facts. Nearly the entire deficit for this year and those projected into the near and medium terms are the result of three things: the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush tax cuts and the recession. The solution to our fiscal situation is: end the wars…”
– Christopher Hayes, The Nation.

Totally untrue.

While there was deficit spending during the Bush years, it has not nearly been at the level we have seen the past two years under President Barack Obama and the liberal Democratic Congress.

American Thinker annihilates this theory with facts – not just what the liberals want to believe. In a nutshell, their post says:

The Iraq War cost $709 billion. Why Carville, Bilmes, and Nobel-winning economist Stiglitz thought the answer was $3 trillion is anybody’s guess. But what’s a 323% error among friends?

The CBO breaks that cost down over the eight calendar years of 2003-2010. Below is a picture of federal deficits over those years with and without Iraq War spending.

Sources: CBO and U.S. Statistical Abstract.

Never let facts get in the way of a good fabrication.

Entering the Labor Day threshold, the Democrats are being trounced by a margin unseen before in the history of Gallup polling!

Gallup shows a 10 point lead in voter preference for Republicans over Democrats, double the lead the GOP had in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994!

“higher than any previous midterm Republican advantage in Gallup’s history of tracking the generic ballot, which dates to 1942. Prior to this year, the highest such gap was five points, measured in June 2002 and July 1994.”

Republican numbers have pretty much hovered where they are for the last several months, but have rarely gotten near 50% in the past 60 years. They are over that now. Democrat numbers have collapsed to 41%. Even in 1994, Democrats scored 46% in this same poll.

Democrats have dropped to the hardcore Party base. They are showing zero, zilch, nada support among Independents with numbers like this.

Part of this is likely to candidates across the country launching television campaign spots much earlier than usual, casting the dye in August rather than waiting for the fall. But mostly, this looks like a monster wave that will make the 50-plus seat win in 1994 look like a pre-season game.

This brings to fruition the promise Rigell gave Bearing Drift on primary night to endeavor to actively seek out the Tea Party’s “confidence”, stating that he shared many of the same core values of the Tea Party.

Specifically, Rigell pledges:

In addition to my sacred oath as a representative to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, if elected to Congress I pledge:

• To promote fiscal discipline and accountability by supporting a full audit of the Federal Reserve System that would be made available to the Congress and the American People. I will support this through any House rule or procedure, any Committee vote, and any House floor roll call vote.
• To fix Washington’s spending problem and set America on the right fiscal track by supporting a Balanced Budget Amendment or similar Constitutional amendment (e.g. Taxpayers Bill of Rights which is indexed to population growth) that serves as an objective standard to control government spending.
• To promote the economic wellbeing of American families and businesses by voting against any tax or fee increase. I will not support any increase in Congressional salaries, perks, retirement, or health benefits until the budget is balanced.
• To safeguard America’s fundamental principles and liberties through vigilance in protecting the rights of free speech. I will vote against any legislation that abridges free speech under the guise of “internet neutrality” or “campaign finance reform”, supports “kill switch”, creates internet taxes, or imposes a “fairness” doctrine.
• To uphold the Constitution and protect America’s economic freedom by supporting legislation (such as the Discharge Petition now in Congress) that defunds, repeals, and replaces the Affordable Health and Patient Recovery Act and actively promotes free market solutions to address the nation’s healthcare concerns. I will do this in any House procedure, Committee vote, or House floor roll call vote. I commit to overriding any Presidential veto of the same.
• To bring accountability and reform to Washington by supporting any type of legislation that would increase transparency and accountability in any act of Congress, such as the Enumerated Powers Act.
• To fight any measure that subverts U.S. sovereignty, whether through trade, currency, environmental causes, the United Nations, immigration amnesty, or under the guise of human rights.

Tea Party leader Karen Hurd said in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot that the goal of this pledge is to boost the Rigell candidacy, marginalize Ken Golden’s, and defeat incumbent Glenn Nye; however, despite the pledge, the Tea Party has not endorsed Rigell.

Back in May, when Hurd and the Tea Party board endorsed Ben Loyola in the GOP primary, many thought that the organization’s leadership overstepped their position and was acting independently of its membership.

Perhaps that’s why Hurd has stopped just short of endorsing Rigell?

The state has long regulated outpatient surgical facilities and personnel to ensure a certain level of protection for patients. There is no reason to hold facilities providing abortion services to any lesser standard for their patients. Even pharmacies, funeral homes, and veterinary clinics are regulated by the state.

The attorney general’s official opinions do not create new law. Instead, the opinions represent the attorney general’s analysis of the current state of the law based on his thorough review of existing law and relevant prior court decisions.

Here are the opinions sent to Del. Marshall and Sen. Smith.

Meanwhile, the opponents of the Attorney General’s decision continue to argue that it will cause abortion clinics to shut down and impair a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. They fail to recognize that the Attorney General was merely releasing an opinion based on legislative requests. Abortion clinics are just like any other outpatient surgical clinic, and they should be held to the same standards as facilities, who specialize in outpatient surgical procedures.

Someday, I’ll pay for that pun.

In the meantime, though, Rasmussen has a poll on the West Virginia Senate race, and it’s a shocker:

In the first Rasmussen Reports post-primary survey of West Virginia’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic Governor Joe Manchin attracts 48% of the vote while Republican businessman John Raese earns 42%.

Keep in mind, Raese was the last sacrificial lamb for the late Robert Byrd. That he could hold one of the most popular Democrats in the state below 50% is a complete stunner.

Keep in mind, outside of recent presidential elections and any vote involving the Moore family, the GOP does not exist in West Virginia. If this race is even close in November, the Democrats could very well lose both houses of Congress.

Cross-posted to RWL

Instead, Deeds writes Op-Eds telling McDonnell he needs to adopt Creigh Deeds’ tax increase idea, even though Virginia overwhelmingly rejected both Deeds and his liberal ideas.

“The campaign is over. Now is the time to be bold.”

That’s Deeds-talk for “Don’t keep campaign promises. Lie to them during the campaign, and then break your promises once you’re elected.”

Creigh, that’s why you ain’t Guv, guy!

Even as a landslide-level-losing candidate, Deeds can’t bring himself to say “tax increase.” You won’t find the word “tax” in his whole smarmy article.

What you’ll find is this:

“We need to come up with a long-term, sustainable source of new revenue”

Let’s see, Creigh. How do you suppose we do that? Where is this revenue going to come from? The sky?

Deeds advises McDonnell to call a special session, saying he will find “allies in unexpected places.” Like Vivian Paige?

Yeah, like the Democrats who want Republicans knocking each other off just in time for the 2011 elections? Sorry, kids. Not biting.

If Democrats really wanted to solve transportation, they would’ve cared enough to include it in the largest tax increase in Virginia history that Mark Warner gave us. Heck, they could correct their mistake and take that Warner tax increase and dedicate it to transportation right now.

That is, if they cared about transportation.

Fact is, they don’t. They just care about taxes.

What Obama could’ve said was this:

“Unemployment here is only 8.2 percent! This is a freakin’ boom! The rest of the nation has 9.5 percent unemployment.”

or maybe he could’ve said

“Sorry I screwed everything up. New Orleans was a hotbed when I became President with unemployment only at 7.4 percent. But as much as I’ve screwed up the rest of the country, I’ve pretty much left you alone.”

or maybe even this

“Someone told me about some oil spill while I was on vacation. How’d that turn out?”

Actually what he really said was:

“We’re going to keep on working, all right?”

At least those who still have jobs will, Mr. President. At least those who still have jobs will.

Carter Ficklen, Virginia head of the organization, wrote that “uranium mining in the Commonwealth of Virginia can and should be pursued.”

The endorsement characterized that mining was safe, well-regulated, and necessary given energy demands. It also stated that the site is required by law to be restored to its “original condition.”

Ficklen writes:

“The proposed mining endeavors can be carried out with minimal impact on the environmental quality of the surrounding areas while simultaneously stimulating the economy of Southside Virginia, filling a vacancy in our country’s energy needs, and reducing the United State’s dependency on foreign sources of energy.”

Just as America’s fledgling revolutionaries needed the British-born Tom Paine to give them a pick-up during a time that tried men’s souls (“Common Sense” and “The Crisis”), British-born Blair delivers to modern day patriots a much needed kick-in-the-pants.

Blair, a successful entrepreneur, using the style found in Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack”, complete with excerpts of speeches, quotes and aphorisms (“The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned; but still ’tis nonsense.” -1754) examines many of our national ills in a series of essays in just over 200 quick-turning pages.

Of our current two-party system, Blair calls them “Honkers” and “Quackers”.

“These Honkers and Quackers…these representatives of the people stand before the national media as cockatoos, repeating their party’s most bizarre, inaccurate, and self-serving statements. Statements that to most Americans sadly reconfirm what they so fearfully comprehend: Congress is as a great team of horses, some harnessed as they should be, head-to-tail, others head-to-head while others tail-to-tail; thus ensuring that Congress, while dropping great mounds of horse manure, makes scant progress, exhibits little sense, and achieves only the slightest movement.”

Blair doesn’t hold back in his critique of our national policies regarding the debt, deficit, taxes, wars, foreign policy, culture wars, the current American work-ethic and sense of entitlement, health care and even chimes in on the “point of conception” debate:

“When in the soft glow of a candle, the young lass, with adoring eyes, ever so close to the broad-shouldered lad, with her warm breath on his, as that lad, with a single, but ever-so-powerful stroke, pulls the cork from the second bottle of Madeira, to interrupt them from that moment on is to thwart conception, and thus offend the grand design of the Supreme Being.”

Often with wit, but sometimes with abrasion, traits that follow in Franklin’s footsteps, Blair reminds us that as Americans, we have been given a great gift of Liberty. But, just because we have a few victories under our belt, our sense of exceptionalism is not preordained; with our current set of policies and personal behavior choices, our current path is outright ruinous. Blair openly and rightly questions where we got off course, but also shows us how our central and shared beliefs can help right the ship.

Blair’s point is not to merely point out the flaws that Franklin might see in modern-day America, but he also seeks to remind us of the great promise that our form of government, as envisioned by the Founders, provides us. And, most importantly, that we still can change.

“Today, no less than ever, citizens of other countries admire and, yes, covet much of what is America. And one such admirable quality of America is that ability to look inward and exercise constant hand-wringing over America’s faults,” he writes.

Blair doesn’t leave us with a promise that our best days are ahead of us – he leaves that for us to decide.

However, should you read the book, you are likely to be compelled to doing the things that will ensure that, indeed, our best days do still remain ahead.

Order “Poorer Richard’s America” here.