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Speaking of Virginia’s lawsuit against ObamaCare: Remember all the liberal hysteria regarding all the money Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli supposedly is spending on the constitutional challenge to the federal health care law (Richmond Times-Dispatch) — as if government spending has ever been an issue with liberals? Never mind that he is defending Virginia law (the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act), which it is his duty to do.

Where are the howls of disgust by the same people now that the Obama Justice Department refuses to agree (Times-Dispatch) with the Attorney General for an expedited appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (Washington Examiner)? Without such an appeal, we’re talking at least two cases in U.S. Courts of Appeals, at least another year or more of legal work and court proceedings, endless briefs and motions, travel from Washington to Richmond and Atlanta, meetings, hundreds of hours of federal government employee time and who knows what else it takes to try a case these days — only this will be two cases simultaneously, not to mention any further cases that are filed in federal district courts by other states or aggrieved parties. It’s no exaggeration to say the cost could be in the millions. That’s a lot more than the $350 it cost the Commonwealth to file its case in Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia . . . but a lot less than the $1.1 billion it will cost Virginia to implement ObamaCare. The pricelessness of the hypocrisy is passed only by the reality of the true costs.

I was in the Senate Finance Committee this morning watching, thankfully, two good bills, which may lead to some much needed tax reform, fly through. The committee agenda was short, normal right after “crossover,” and only six bills were heard, all passing on unanimous voice votes. Can’t be much simpler than that. At what should’ve been a quick bang of the gavel to dismiss, committee Chairman Chuck Colgan (D-29, Manassas) made the announcement, the first one in public as it turned out: Former Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leroy Hassell, Sr., died, unexpectedly, at age 55 (WTVR.com). He previously stepped aside as chief justice, but remained on the court. 

Governor Bob McDonnell ordered that the flag of the commonwealth be flown at half-staff on all local, state, and federal buildings and grounds (WTVR.com). New Chief Justice Cynthia Kinser was scheduled to be sworn in officially this week. There is no word on the status of that ceremony at this point. She will be the first woman Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice.

(Updated 4:45 p.m.: The governor has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff until his burial on all local, state, and federal buildings and grounds in Virginia. Additionally, Justice Hassell will lie in state in the Virginia State Capitol prior to burial. See his official statement honoring Justice Hassell)

Chief Justice Hassell was the first black person to serve in that position. He was a native Virginian, and proudly so. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli included this 2003 quote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in his statement honoring Mr. Hassell:

I do not wish to serve, however, because I happen to be black. Rather, I desire to serve because I am a Virginian by birth who has a strong affection and love for the commonwealth and its people.

He will be missed. He was a man of great faith, intellect, warmth, stature and humility.

Later in the morning, a bombshell e-mail from a political consultant friend: U.S. Senator Jim Webb will not run for re-election in 2012 (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog). Though not totally unexpected, the timing (through no fault of Senator Webb) was strange, so soon after the sad news about Justice Hassell. Mr. Webb had not actively engaged in fundraising and many thought from the beginning he would term limit himself, given the flukish nature of his election — and a possible Defense Secretary appointment in a potential Obama second term.

Now, the attention turns to who the Democrats will nominate. Early speculation ranges from everyone from former Governor Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe (if he can be pulled away from running for governor) to former Congressmen Rick Boucher and Tom Periello, to Krystal Ball, who unsuccessfully challenged Republican Rob Wittman in the first district last year.

Numbers explain — in a creative, to the point, self-explanatory video — where we are as a country right now. Oh, and in some of the words, too, of a particular president.

Lots of problems. No accountability. One solution.

Earlier this month there was a “social justice” rally at the Mall in Washington, D.C., meant to counter the Glenn Beck rally in August. (The attendance wasn’t within a fraction of the Beck event and yet the attendees thoroughly trashed and littered the Mall, whereas, by all news accounts, the conservative event left nary a hot dog wrapper.)

While that comparison chewed up minutes on talk radio, space on Web sites and column inches in newspapers, the most important revelation to come out of the second event was the makeup of the crowd. It was populated by proud socialists and communists. We posted the shocking video from that rally (click here), complete with signs and shirts bearing  socialist slogans, book stands selling communist classics and groups chanting extremist sentiments. No attempt was made to hide their true philosophy and intentions for America.

While a bunch of radicals descending on D.C. may seem pretty far removed from what we must contend with in Virginia, that extremism is closer to home than one might suspect. Sure, we know there are very deep pockets of blue in Virginia, but this hard core? This radically left wing?  

Yes, and it is shocking! Just as with the D.C. march, Americans For Prosperity showed up at the Obama-Perriello rally Friday in Charlottesville(as well as the counter rally) and politely attempted to hand out, for free, the organization’s “Socialism Isn’t Cool” bumper stickers. As Virginia AFP Director Ben Marchi tells a Perriello supporter in the video below, even the president says he isn’t a socialist. But the contentious radicals proudly proclaim socialism (and Perrielloism and Obamaism)! 

Okay, maybe it isn’t that shocking that they’re socialists. However, their blatant nature and the guy wearing the hammer and sickle is a bit over the top. Who you calling socialist? Why, they’re calling themselves that — and dumbfounded as to why Americans reject them. As for the candidate these people support for Congress — Mr. Perriello — remember the adage about the friends one keeps when judging the person in question.

As with the original video, this speaks for itself:

To Perriello supporters, socialism is VERY COOL, indeed!

How many times can a president decry his own nation? We know Barack Obama doesn’t think much of certain “bitter clingers.” He also hammers away at people and institutions that create jobs as “selfish.” His administration is more concerned with white Christian veterans from Western states than documented law breakers. We could launch a blog only on the insults he heaps upon his fellow Americans. But yesterday he went a step further and called for the “punishment” (at the polls) of conservatives whom he called “enemies.” So much for the “post-partisan” presidency, the uniting “annointed one.” In the Age of Obama, if you have a different idea you are branded.

I’m not your ruler, daggonit, so go out and punish our enemies!

You have to feel sorry for him, though. He clearly laments the fact that he is not our king, although he governs as a ruler and not a democrat. But let’s give the president some charity. After all, he said his opponents could join him in a car ride . . . only, they must “sit in the back seat” (see Stop The ACLU).

The great conciliator: “Enemies” need to take a seat “in the back.” So much for uniting the country.

This hot-off-the-editing-computer ad from the Republican Governors Association says it all. From government takeovers, reduced freedoms, unfathomable debt, sky rocketing  unemployment, prohibitive taxes, incompetence, oil spills, arrogance and blame, and a general lack of standing in the world — and no end in sight (see BigGovernment.com) — it’s all compressed here into two minutes and 40 seconds:

A stark video compilation of the disaster of the last two years under Obama-Reid-Pelosi: America in decline while Obama vacations and the liberals bale on tax relief.

Conservative grassroots activism has never been greater nor more effective than over the last year-and-a-half. Tea Parties, town hall meetings, anti-government-run health care rallies and other events in localities as well as in Washington, D.C., have grabbed the media spotlight, dominated the political debate, sent powerful messages to the big spending politicians, and reshaped and re-energized the conservative movement.

Now is not the time to let up. Tomorrow and Friday, our friends at Americans For Prosperity are bringing their November Is Coming bus tour to the commonwealth. Per AFP:

While politicians in Washington are hoping voters are asleep at the wheel, they are trying to hide their big-government spending policies from the public and pass them with ease. Government spending has grown out of control under the current leadership in Congress . . . may soon vote on job-killing cap-and-trade policies against the outspoken voices of millions of Americans. Daily, big government power grabs by the Obama/Pelosi/Reid machine continue.

We must tell Congress very clearly that if they keep voting YES on big government programs, we will vote NO on their re-election this November! We need to tell these big-spending liberals in Washington . . . that “November is coming”!

Here is the November Is Coming bus tour schedule. We hope you can attend one of its stops.

Thursday, September 9:

Charlottesville: 8:30 a.m., Albemarle County Administration Building, 401 McIntire Road

Lynchburg: 11:30 a.m., Liberty University Dining Hall Parking Lot, 1971 University Boulevard

Rocky Mount: 3:00 p.m., Franklin County Courthouse, 275 South Main Street

Danville: 5:30 p.m., Danville Courthouse, 401 Patton Street

Friday, September 10:

Abingdon: 8:00 a.m., Virginia Highlands Community College Higher Education Center, 1 Partnership Circle

Wytheville: 10:15 a.m., Wytheville Courthouse, 225 South 4th Street

Roanoke: 12:30 p.m., Roanoke City Municipal Building, 215 Church Avenue

One of our avid readers sent this to me. It’s a fantastic reminder of how relevant Ronald Reagan remains. It’s as if he’s calling out today’s Far Left. The video is a mash-up of RR’s 1964 “The Speech” with some of the most notorious quotes from within the last year by Washington’s liberal leaders — Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Frank, Durbin; they’re all here, with a supporting cast every bit as fanatical about control. That’s a thirst for control over your health care, your earnings, over how you spend your earnings, over the economy, over how your children learn, over the legal process . . . you name it, they want control over it. U.S. Representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), respectively, say it most pointedly:

give us more authority and more ability. …  

And:

. . . put the legislation together to control the people.

Hear it for yourselves:

Ronald Reagan calls out today’s Far Left just as he did in 1964.

Even as the fallout from the Prop 8 ruling is still getting sorted, another legal proceeding dealing with a major marriage protection law is ongoing. But barely. Whereas the defenders of California’s Marriage Amendment filed a prompt appeal and yesterday won a stay on San Francisco Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker’s deplorable decision at least until the end of the year (San Francisco Chronicle), the Obama Justice Department’s weak and meek defense of the federal Defense of Marriage Act appears to have “thrown the match” and it says it is not certain whether it will appeal a recent Massachusetts Federal District Court’s decision that ruled DOMA unconstitutional. As Chuck Donovan writes at The Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry blog:

Echoing some of the most notorious boxing matches in the history of the ring, the Obama-Kagan Justice Department engaged in what even one supporter of same-sex marriage, the distinguished constitutional law scholar Richard Epstein, labeled “almost like collusive litigation,” where the adversaries in a case are secretly on the same side.

The collusion boils down to this: attorneys in the Obama Justice Department, who have sworn that they will “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office” in which they serve, abandoned not one but all four of the bases for DOMA asserted by Congress. “Congress” in this instance was no small minority cobbled together at the last instant for legislation it scarcely debated, but a bipartisan majority that encompassed 85 percent of both houses of Congress, joined by a Democratic president (Bill Clinton) who had access to comprehensive reports that amplified the many grounds for DOMA.

The Justice Department’s concessions were crucial to the outcome in the case. As Judge Joseph Tauro noted, he felt bound to address the detailed justifications Congress provided for DOMA only briefly, because, “For the purposes of this litigation, the government has disavowed Congress’s stated justifications for the statute[.]“

As Family Research Council President Tony Perkins (see FRC Blog) wrote yesterday: 

The Defense of Marriage Act merely defines marriage — for federal purposes — as being between one man and one woman, and protects states from having to change their state definitions. Not surprisingly, a liberal court in Massachusetts — after a weak defense from the Obama Justice Department — ruled DOMA unconstitutional. Amazingly, the federal government appears to be dragging its feet as they contemplate whether or not to EVEN APPEAL the decision! If the Department of Justice does not appeal, it is unlikely outside defenders of marriage will even be allowed to defend marriage in court.

The Department of Justice is supposed to vigorously defend statutes passed by Congress, not to roll over to appease President Obama’s political base.

So, FRC Action has started a nationwide petition to hold the Justice Department accountable and to do its job — appeal and aggressively defend the law of the land. Please take time to sign the petition (click here to sign) and send a clear message to the Obama administration. He has said he believes marriage is between one man and one woman (ABCNews.com). It’s time he proves it with a vigorous defense of federal law he is sworn to uphold.

Liberals always scream at any tax rate reductions. It doesn’t matter if the rates are across the board and equitable. The contrived and demagogic class warfare card gets pulled out faster than a Las Vegas dealer.

We’re at that point again. This New Year’s Eve, the tax rate reductions from 2001 and 2003 will expire and rates will sky rocket, further hammering the economy and deepening the Obama recession. Liberals in Washington, including the president, say with a straight face the revenue gained from the automatic tax increase will bring in more than $700 billion over the next several years, money needed to close the deficit. Apparently spending $787 billion in one year isn’t a problem, however, as he did with the so-called “stimulus” bill, which was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent. (Not to mention today’s $26 billion federal bailout of the national teacher union’s pension fund.) (Wall Street Journal Washington Wire blog.)

(By the way, in a move that eerily presages the future under ObamaCare, it will be better to die on New Year’s Eve if you are planning to leave an estate to a loved one. On January 1, that loved one will get hit with a massive tax increase, as the death tax itself rises from the dead.)

But some Democrats are lobbying for an extension of the tax cuts, such as Evan Bayh of Indiana (Washington Examiner). Of course, it won’t happen because the president is busy demonizing every action by the Bush administration as evil, and extendin the tax cut are politically untenable . . . for him. Never mind the bogus premise that raising taxes beyond a certain point increases tax revenue, because it decreases revenue, while lower tax rates increase it as history has shown time and again.

Don’t believe me? Then try this one on for size. One of Virginia’s most quoted economists, Christine Chmura, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday, wrote about a study on tax rate reductions by two University of California-Berkeley economists (not your most conservative campus). The study was a bit different because it examined a broad scope of federal taxation as well as four categories, including reducing the deficit and economic growth. Their findings?

The resulting estimates indicate that tax increases are highly contractionary.

Then, Chmura summarized the rest of their findings:

The large effects are driven considerably by a sharp reduction in investment.

Other parts of the economy, such as consumer spending on goods and services, as well as imports, also are negatively impacted.

However, the economists also found that tax increases to reduce a persistent budget deficit leads to a reduction in real gross domestic product. …

She urged Congress to heed the study, published in 2007. But perhaps so should the president. It was written by professors David Romer and his wife, Christine — Mr. Obama’s very own Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.