Jeff Frederick running for senate.

My favoritest RPV chair ever, Jeff Frederick, is running for state senate! (Or, apparently, he and some friends will be sharing the seat, because in his e-mail to supporters, he wrote that “we’ve decided to run.“) This is for the 36th district, Toddy Puller’s open seat. I don’t know the dynamics of the district well …

Links for May 22nd

Wikipedia: List of predicted dates of the end of the worldI'm pretty sure none of them worked out. New York: The Elephant in the Green RoomThe conditions under which Glenn Beck left Fox News turn out to be pretty fascinating. Roger Ailes brought Beck on to fire up the conservative base after their 2008 defeat, …

Claudia Tucker, Wilkins’ eavesdropper, is running for senate.

Claudia Tucker is running for state senate. Does that name ring a bell? RPV executive director Ed Matricardi fingered Tucker in the Republican eavesdropping scandal, back in 2003, rolling over on her and four other Republican leaders as having orchestrated and participated in the illegal monitoring of DPVA phone calls. (After serving prison time, Matricardi …

Links for May 16th

Discovery Channel: Mike Rowe Senate TestimonyThe host of "Dirty Jobs" provided an important argument to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about why our education system needs to emphasize skilled trades. College is not for everybody. Way too many kids are going to college—it doesn't make economic sense, for them or for …

Links for May 13th

PolitiFact Virginia: Jamie Radtke says George Allen had 40,000 earmarks while senatorDoes anybody take this woman seriously anymore? CNN: Conservative group sues over bin Laden death photosAlthough I think it would be politically unwise and generally disgusting to release the photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse, I think there's a good argument to be made …

Links for May 11th

Slate: More than half of Republican voters still doubt President Obama was born in the U.S.34% of Republicans are convinced that the president was not born in the United States. I think this gives us a good baseline of the percentage of the Republican Party that is racist and/or mentally ill. Another 18% just aren't …

Links for May 2nd

New York Times: A Tipping Point for Gay Marriage?With the government unable to muster a legally defensible argument against gay marriage, it's amazing that the House of Representatives went ahead and hired their own private law firm to carry on the right. But it's more amazing still that the law firm dropped the case, finding …

Links for April 27th

Virginian Pilot: Large alligator spotted near NC-VA state lineGlobal climate change means alligators are marching northward, clear to Virginia. Ken Cuccinelli should go for a swim in the Pasquotank River with seven feet of global warming hoax. The Washington Post: The shocking truth about the birthplace of Obama’s policiesEzra Klein's sensationalist headline aside, it's a …

Links for April 22nd

Public Policy Polling: A deeper look at the birthersA 2009 "birther" poll of North Carolina residents found that 6% believe that Hawaii is not part of the United States, while 4% just aren't sure. That's one in ten North Carolinians who are not aware of one of the most fundmental facts of our nation. St. …

Links for April 19th

Politico: Half of Iowa Republicans don’t believe Barack Obama was born in U.S.Another quarter simply aren't sure. Iowa Republicans must be some of the dumbest people on Earth. Rubular: A Ruby regular expression editor and testerEnter a regular expression and a test string, and it evaluates the results. Marvelously useful. Reuters: Swedish spruce may be …