Saturday, March 15, 2008

Virgil's gonna keep me busy...

I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I decided to chronicle the myriad ways in which Virgil Goode (has there ever been given a more egregiously appropriate misnomer?) fucks up. It's not just a matter of the sheer volume (overwhelming would be the generous - to V.G. - description)... No... It's the emotional toll involved. One can only take so much before beginning to lose faith in the process...

How does this guy get elected? Who votes for him?

It's been about two weeks since my last substantive post on March 3rd...

In that time:

Bad Virgil voted in favor of torture. (I still cannot quite grasp that the United States has fallen so low that we allow our elected representatives to vote in favor of Inquisitorial tactics...)

Scored 1/2 of an "F" in the Drum Major Institute's rating of legislators with regards to how they voted in terms of supporting the middle class. Bad Virgil voted against the middle class 80% of the time. Stunning.

Bad Virgil voted against desperately needed ethics reform in the House. Gee... I wonder why?

to be continued....

Monday, March 10, 2008

Bad Virgil has an opponent

Looks like Virgil might have his work cut out for him this cycle...

Raising Kaine has the details...

DownWithTyranny has more and more...

Monday, March 3, 2008

Not my idea of common sense

It hasn't even been a year yet since a disturbed young Va. Tech. student (sick or not, I'll probably never be able to bring myself to call him a "Hokie") killed 32 students in Blacksburg, VA. Every year brings us a new crop of school shootings and several disrupted plots.

Maybe it's because I'm from a place called Planet Sanity, but I've got to believe that even the most enthusiastic gun-lover would readily concede that schools and guns don't mix.

That's not to say that there aren't plenty of deranged ideologues willing to soak you with spittle while they stand on their 2nd Amendment soapbox decrying the "slippery slope" and their absolute right to arm their second grader.

Of course, anyone that was paying attention knew that Ron Paul was one of these wild-eyed lunatics... By way of confirmation, Representative Paul has introduced H.R. 2424 - a bill that would repeal the Gun Free Schools Act and all of its amendments.

No to be absolutely clear, I'm not exactly sure what the amendments are, but I suspect they were enacted after the Supreme Court surprised everyone by rolling back the Commerce Clause when the decided United States v. Lopez in 1995. They invalidated the law, saying that the federal government could not reach so far into the business of the States without a compelling reason having to do with interstate commerce.

So...

Congress may have gone back to amend the act... or... Paul is blowing a dog whistle for his lunatic base and doing this as a symbolic gesture.

Either way, what does this have to do with Bad Virgil?

Well... there are 434 voting members f the United States House of Representatives. Many of them are far, far, far right-wing nutcases.

But...

Only one of them co-sponsored this fringe legislation. (click on "Show Co-sponsors")

That's right. Blacksburg be damned... Virgil Goode thinks it makes sense for our school children to be strapped in class.