The war in Iraq costs $4B each month. The funny thing is that the White House can only account for $2.5B of that — they just can’t figure out what the other $1.5B is being spent on. And Bush wants another $87B? Says Ted Kennedy of the war, “‘There was no imminent threat. This was …
Category Archives: Politics
C’ville Dems defining who they are.
Tuesday night, at 7pm, the Charlottesville Democrats are meeting at Buford Middle School to discuss developing a Statement of Principles. Currently, party has no platform, no agenda, no stated purpose. As I wrote in my suggested changes to the Charlottesville Democratic Party back in May: “Charlottesville Democrats have no stated mission, no specified common beliefs, …
Raise taxes.
The Roanoke Times’ Friday editorial called for the General Assembly to raise taxes. That’s a first for a major Virginia newspaper, to my knowledge. It’s amazing that it’s taken this long. To anybody that’s taken anything more than a cursory glance at the state budget, it’s obvious that the state requires a baseline level of …
No love for the kids.
I went to the Virginia Tech Young Democrats officers’ meeting this evening. It was quite disappointing. I’d anticipated a meeting of eager young liberals, all believing that they could take over the world through leadership, politics and activism. That’s the sort of enthusiasm that has historically been the lifeblood of the Democratic Party. If that’s …
VA Republicans closing in on birth control.
It’s no secret that Delegate Bob Marshall (R – Manassas) is one of the looniest bastards in the Virginia General Assembly. A devout Catholic, Marshall thinks that everybody else ought to be forced to follow the same belief structure that he does. In early 2002, citing the September 11th attacks, he introduced a bill requiring …
Continue reading “VA Republicans closing in on birth control.”
Aggregated Congressional roll call voting data.
I’ve been working for weeks to parse Congressional roll call votes. Because most Congressmen are horrible, horrible people, this data is only available on a vote-by-vote listing, and not in any aggregate format. Consequently, I’ve had to write incredibly complex regular expressions to parse this data. I’ve spent hours on it, and I’ve gotten perhaps …
Continue reading “Aggregated Congressional roll call voting data.”
$.5T Deficit
The Congressional Budget Office will reveal tomorrow that our deficit is about to expand further still, from $401B this year to $500B — half a trillion dollars — next year. They forecast a total $6.3T deficit in the next decade. That’s not including $2T tax cuts planned by the White House. Tax cuts that will, …
The best election money can buy.
I’d forgotten just how brazenly that Bush manipulated the 2000 presidential election, particularly with regard to Florida. A reminder.
Rob Schilling as Satan.
July 23, 2003, 6:12pm. Corner of 2nd NE & Market.
Another Republican defeat.
We Charlottesville/Albemarle Democrats have our time-honored tradition of beating up on Republicans, with yesterday’s occasion being the annual charity softball game between the two. We won by 20-15, having led by as much as 11 runs at one time. The whole thing was particularly worth it to see Delegate Rob Bell and Councilor Rob Schilling …