Bob Marshall’s on the internets.

1. Waldo,

   While reading this post, something caught my eye. You pointed out that Bob Marshall did “something with a truck.” I do not know the full story, but I do believe that Marshalls son was killed by a truck in a circumstance similar to the situation that bill instended to fix. Like I said, I dont know the story, but it would explain
   why he thought the bill was important enough to put on his site.

   I’m no fan of Marshall, but in the interest of sensitivity and respect, taking that reference
   off the post would be a good gesture.

2. I’d also suggest taking out that part about the issues. While I agree that Del. Marshall’s website is a bit of a mess, if one spends more than 30 seconds on it, his stand on the issues can be found under the news section. It isn’t friendly to someone just looking for a quick rundown, but then again, people should spend more time on the issues than that.

   I do have to say that this is a low blow. Del. Marshall is quite complacent, and I have met his opponent (Bruce Roemmelt) before even hearing of Marshall. Already, it is a losing battle and I expect Roemmelt to win because he is running the superior campaign (though I disagree, quite obviously, with his politics). This website was released far too early and needs to be completed desperately. However, I’m sorry Waldo, but I think you are kicking a man while he is down (not to mention making this more of a personal attack than a political argument).

3. I do believe that Marshalls son was killed by a truck in a circumstance similar to the situation that bill instended to fix.

   I have no idea under what circumstances his son was killed, though I do understand that it was an auto accident. That said, I’m not writing about that, and I wouldn’t — I’m writing about his legislative history. I’m not about to fail to write about a bill because of a speculative (or real) connection to his personal life.

   My former senator, Sen. Emily Couric, introduced a bill pertaining to colon cancer after her brother-in-law, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer. If the bill sucked, though, I certainly couldn’t muster any righteous indignation in response to criticism of the bill.

   I think you are kicking a man while he is down

   Kicking a man while he’s down? The guy’s running for office. He’s an incumbent member of the House of Delegates. I strongly support his opponent. It would be totally crazy for me to fail to criticize an aspect of his campaign because he’s perceived to be losing. On the contrary, that’s all the more reason to do so. :)

   I can’t pity Bob Marshall. I can’t come up with a single feeling of pity for the guy. He’s the most hateful, bitter, narrow-minded men in the House of Delegates. He gets points for consistency and focus, if I have to reach for something.

   This is politics. I’ll never feel guilty for criticizing a candidate on the grounds of his campaign. I should hope that nobody would. Without that, we’ve got nothing to talk about. :) Would you have felt guilty for criticizing Howard Dean after he lost Iowa so spectacularly?

4. On a side note… I noticed the part about the HTML not being valid. I ran a check on all of my websites and none of them are valid. I also noticed this blog and Nancies.org don’t show up as being valid. How does one create a valid site?

5. Valid code comes from adhering closely to the World Wide Web Consortium standards, the standards that define HTML. While the W3C validator uses validation as a binary concept, in truth it’s somewhat closer to a sliding scale. :)

   Nearly all of the validation errors on my site, for example, are neither obstacles to rendering on a wide array of browsers nor to accessibility on the part of handicapped readers. (Though, admittedly, I’m far less concerned about such things, in that I’m not a member of the House of Delegates, and I have no legal or even practical obligation to serve all comers. Still, I like to do so.)

   There are some validation errors that are worse than others. For example, not having ALT tags on important images denies blind visitors any ability to comprehend the contents of the site. Ditto on LONGDESC tags on data tables. Many rendering errors will trip up specialized browsers used by those who are visually or physically handicapped. The only way to avoid that is to test the site on those browsers or, instead, write completely valid code.

   There are number of faux pas that, while not validation errors, do prevent accessibility on the part of handicapped site users. For example, placing the site’s menu prior to the site’s content, within the order of the code, means that visitors using text-to-speech synthesizers have to listen to the menu being read, first thing, on every single page on the website. That’s a real problem for somebody who doesn’t have a great deal of time on their hands.

   nancies.org is a special case. :) Because the site is rendered by dozens different scripts that generate bits of the code, which were written before CSS was even in use, we’re gradually moving the site from HTML v4 to XHTML v1.1. Doing so requires that we be out of compliance during the transition. We’ve started to develop our new XHTML site templates, but doing so will necessitate a new design, since our current design isn’t possible in XHTML. It’s like turning around the QE2. :)

   It’s definitely best to have 100% valid code, whenever feasible. If you must have errors — and sometimes you must — make sure that they’re not show-stoppers for anybody. (eg, Virginia Family Values) That’s as good as it gets.

6. Waldo,

   You are showing an extreme lack of morals and maturity with your position. If you want to attack Marshals lack of effectiveness as a legislator, great, and I couldn’t agree more. But your sarcastic tone referring to Marshalls truck bill is inexcuseable. The bill was a direct result of the death of his son, which I do believe involved a truck attempting to get in the left lane because it was in such a hurry (hence the bill). The legislature thought it was a worthy bill and passed it. Marshall is everything you described him as, and there is planty of ammo for you to attack him with. There is no need to focus on the bill that has such a personal and genuine reason
   behind it. Have some respect for the son, if not for the father.

7. No, there is no connection between the bill and the death of his son. You’re completely making that up.

   Bob Marshall’s son died on a November night when he and a friend drove off 81 and onto the shoulder, rear-ending a disabled tractor-trailer at full speed. The tractor-trailer was parked, with its blinkers running, and Marshall’s son and his friend were not wearing seatbelts.

   This was in November of 2001, a year and a half after Marshall’s bill passed.

   Frankly, I’m very uncomfortable writing about this, because it’s none of my business, any more than it’s any of your business. The laws of space-time prevent the bill from having anything to do with the death of his son. Let’s drop it, before you look more foolish and I have to write anything more about this man’s private tragedy.

8. > no doubt they’re a “special interest” who don’t count as a protected group people there “are no water
   > fountains that say ‘no crips’.”

   i’ve read and re-read this sentance a dozen times and i can’t for the life of me figure out what it means, or even what sort of grammatical error or punctuation-typo is preventing me from understanding what you’re talking about. man oh man, i am puzzled.

9. Sorry, James. :) I missed the word “because.” Try this:

   no doubt they’re a “special interest” who don’t count as a protected group people because there “are no water fountains that say ‘no crips’.

   Bob Marshall has said this of homosexuals — that there can’t be discrimination against gays, because he’s never seen a water fountain that says “heterosexuals only.”

10. Hi Waldo. You must be very proud of yourself, buying the domain name http://www.siredesigns.com, that was going to be the link to my brother’s and my company we were trying to start. What you did may be legal, but morally it is stealing. My brother and I had a dream starting our own little company, thanks for stealing that dream.

    And what is this whining about HTML validating? I coded it in Notepad. Sorry I am not “leet” at coding such as you. I’m only 17, but I figured this website would help inform citizens about my dad. Your immoral actions inform people about you in a much louder way. My brother did pass away from a car accident. The truck was parked on the side of a shoulder on a ramp coming onto I-81. The shoulder looks like a lane of traffic, this has happened too often to too many people on I-81, and for you to bring it up in a campaign with the excuse “This is politics. I’ll never feel guilty…” shows your character. Failing to feel guilt for immoral actions (stealing my brother’s and my future business address) shows your lack of a conscience. You have either a poorly formed conscience or simply, no conscience at all.

    Another thing, Mr. Perfect-HTML-Coder, how hypocritical can you be to accuse my website of being “not html valid” when your own site isn’t. When did you become the official temperature of the internet anyways? According to the Internet Markup Validation Service, even Mark Warner and John Kerry’s website aren’t fit to your standards. It must be awful lonely being so perfect…hehe.

    Perhaps you are not aware of this book, Waldo, but your actions remind me of what a carpenter from Nazareth said to the self-appointed leaders of his day:
    “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faith…You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.” –Matthew 23: 23-24

    See you at the polls, Waldo.

11. Hey, you figured it out! Well done. You’re welcome to have the domain name. Just let me know to what name to transfer it.

12. J.M.,

    Waldo did not bring up your brother’s passing nor did he try to use it in a campaign. He was talking about a piece of highway-related legislation that had nothing to do with it. If anything, he went out of his way to make it perfectly clear that personal tragedy should be totally off-limits politically.

    As far as your website is concerned, you should count yourself lucky. Most people would keep the domain name and just laugh at you for failing to register it. He’s offering to give it to you like a gentleman. I suggest that you chalk the whole thing up to a very entertaining lesson in politics on the internet; a lesson from which you are emerging unscathed only through the good will and mercy of your political opponent. Ask your father how often this kind of mercy is granted in Virginia politics.

    Perhaps you should not be so quick pass judgement on who is and who is not in agreement with that carpenter.

13. In fact, at the time of registration, I left the DNS timeout period at just 120 seconds, rather than the usual 24 hours, so that it could be redirected with as little delay as possible.

    Not having heard from the fella yesterday, after I e-mailed him, I changed the registration to “Johnny Marshall,” and the address to his father’s “district office” (read as: post office box). It’s not every day that I buy somebody a domain name. Happy birthday.

    Pranks are only funny if nobody is harmed. Generally, it takes the prank-ee a while to come around to get the joke. The good news is that everybody else had a good laugh. Bob Marshall’s site was Virginia Family Value’s #1 source of traffic for the past few days. :)

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