FamilyFoundationBlog.com

No issue has galvanized Americans like the attempt by President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to take over the American health care system and put it under federal government control. Conservatives, liberals, moderates, Democrats, Republicans and independents alike have made their voices known — No nationalized health care! After a string of embarrassing election losses — including the historic conservative landslide sweep here in Virginia last November and the recent Republican win in the Massachusetts special Senate election — it looked like health care “reform” was dead.

Not so fast. President Obama and his liberal Congressional allies are resuscitating their plans with talk of forcing it through Congress in a process called “reconciliation” that bypasses the protection of a filibuster. So, what can we do about it?

In Virginia, plenty! This week’s news from Washington couldn’t have better timing because Monday afternoon the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will hear Delegate Bob Marshall’s HB 10, the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act, which would exempt Virginians from individual federal health care mandates. Although three Senate versions have passed the General Assembly already, and are on their way to Governor Bob McDonnell to become the first law of its type in the land, Delegate Marshall’s (R-13, Manassas) bill is slightly different and would provide additional protections. The Commerce and Labor Committee barely passed the other versions with 8-7 votes. Democrat Senators Charles Colgan (D-29, Manassas) and Phil Puckett (D-38, Tazewell) bravely bucked their party leadership to vote for true health care freedom. Please thank them, and encourage them and other members of the committee to vote for HB 10 to secure Virginia from federal intrusion into our personal health care decisions!

This is an historic opportunity for Virginia to protect itself from federal government intrusion! Please contact members of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee (here) now and ask them to pass HB 10.

Four years ago, only a few weeks after taking office and proposing (against his campaign promise) the largest tax increase in Virginia history, Congressional Democrats chose then-Governor Tim Kaine to deliver their party’s response to then-President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address. Yesterday, it was reported (see Washington Post), that Congressional Republicans have chosen newly sworn-in Governor Bob McDonnell to give the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s January 27 State of the Union.

How about that for asymmetrical karma? But there’s more.

Yesterday, House Republicans brought to the floor Delegate Bob Brink’s (D-48, Arlington) HB 1155, legislation that would enact former Governor Tim Kaine’s proposed income tax increase (see Richmond Times-Dispatch). The bill was referred to the House Rules Committee, which alone has the authority to report bills to the floor without recommendation. Thus it did with HB 1155 in order to put Democrats on the spot — vote against their friend and national party chairman or be on record for higher taxes in a recession. Delegate Brink requested that the bill be pulled, normally a pro forma request that’s granted at the will of the patron. Not yesterday!

Instead, it was put to a vote while Democrats vehemently protested. As if they couldn’t have anticipated it. Remember, last year Republicans did the same thing on a bill that would have repealed Virginia’s Right To Work Law (see post here and video here). They forced a vote by bringing that equally controversial bill through a no recommendation vote on the Rules Committee. The Democrats reacted by abstaining, but through a parliamentary procedure that says if a member is in his seat but not voting, and another member points that out, the vote must be recorded in the negative. Thus, Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-8, Salem) forcibly recorded no votes against the bill which put Democrats at odds with their Big Labor allies.

With this as background, certainly they knew something was coming with a monstrous tax increase bill, and they knew they couldn’t abstain. On the first day of session, when the rules package is adopted, Minority Leader Ward Armstrong (D-10, Martinsville) said as much when he objected to the Rules Committee exception. As it turned out, it was a unanimous blowout, with the House voting 97-0 (with Delegate Brink abstaining) to reject one last Tim Kaine tax increase, sending it down with all his others, this one posthumously, in the political sense.

So, the question is, why file the tax increase bill to begin with? Only Delegate Brink knows for sure, but we suspect some members of the General Assembly like to give a peek of their colors to satisfy certain constituencies, but seek to conceal them altogether from the greater electorate. Increasingly, however, these lawmakers get found out.

We’re not in the habit of promoting certain television programs, but it is worth noting one airing tonight on ABC at 8:00 Eastern. It’s the A Charlie Brown Christmas special (see it online, here). 

Last week, you may recall, President Barack Obama unceremoniously bumped the show from its original air date with the pomp of his West Point Afghanistan speech. ABC imediately re-scheduled.

The lackluster speech and indecisive policy added only slightly less to the public’s displeasure of him than did the canceling of the special. That’s because, despite what the media portrays and tried to convey, Americans still love traditional values and cultural institutions that portray and communicate them. It may be campy to some, who see it as a relic of a simpleton time, but countless millions, no matter how many times it has aired, sit down, many with their own children, and watch this most meaningful of shows. Especially in this era when even the innocence of cartoons has been debased and corrupted, not to mention that the word ”Christmas” practically is shunned, A Charlie Brown Christmas  means a lot to most (see Ralph Couey’s tribute in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat).

In other words, people instinctively don’t need modern culture’s twist on what they inherently know is right, just and good. No amount of modernism (or “post-modern” culture), however sophisticated it positions itself in an attempt to make the public feel inadequate for not “progressing,” can substitute for everlasting truth, or redefine what is wholesome. It is as ever present as the life sprung forth in Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree. For the Truth is out there. In this case, it’s in this memorable scene:

Enduring values and the true meaning of Christmas continue to resonate in the truth that comes from innocence in this memorable television moment. In its simplicity, its message is more powerful than the one conveyed by modern culture.

Educrats and assorted opponents of school choice and competition love to point to statistics that show student achievement in charter schools is no greater than in government-run schools. Therefore, they demand that we stop ”taking away resources” from public schools.

(First, can we stop using the euphemism “resources”? It’s taxpayer money, for Pete’s sake! It doesn’t come from the ground or trees or the river, where real, actual, put-to-use resources come from.)

Second, we know what they say about statistics. Third, and most important, if charter schools are so bad or indifferent, why do so many parents and students want in? In New York alone, there is a waiting list of 40,000 students trying to escape the government-run monopoly!

Unfortunately, New York, as does Virginia, has a cap on the amount of charter schools. Different formula, same result — restricting competition and choice as well as the variety of teaching methods and environments. The only thing it does produce is more student failure and teacher inadequacy. But there is hope for New York. Its Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch told Maura Walz of the blog Gotham Schools that she favors raising the charter school cap. There is hope in Virginia as well, since Governor-elect Bob McDonnell, his running mates Lt. Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli, and the increased GOP majority in the House of Delegates favor more school competition. With McDonnell’s giant mandate, there are rumors of some big idea education reform legislation that may be proposed during the upcoming session of the General Assembly. After all, even President Barack Obama is in the odd position of being on McDonnell’s side on this issue. 

For a good briefing on the actual value of charter schools, here’s part one of an interview with Caroline Hoxby, Ph.D., the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor of Economics at Stanford University, conducted by the Show-Me Institute in May (for the other three parts, click on this YouTube link and the the “more info” link on the right):

If charter schools are so bad, why are is there a waiting list of 40,000 students in New York?

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Bob Holsworth (Virginia Tomorrow) speak Monday night about the recent elections. He is the best political analyst in Virginia in my opinion and his insights on campaigns and strategies never fail to enlighten.

He said that one of the many aspects where the Creigh Deeds campaign (as well as the Wagner and Shannon campaigns) fell short was in its inability to respond to the federal issues — card check, cap-and-trade, nationalized health care — Republican Bob McDonnell repeatedly raised as not only an intrusion into Virginians’ sovereignty, but as harmful to Virginians themselves —their prosperity, opportunity, way of life, health. In other words, upholding the 10th Amendment, which leaves to the states all powers not specifically delineated to the federal government.

Senator Deeds couldn’t dis President Barack Obama, who historically carried Virginia last year, and turn off the liberal Democrat base and its newly energized voters, by opposing those signature liberal issues. So the best he could do was assert they had nothing to do with running the commonwealth. Dr. Holsworth said Deeds’ inability to satisfactorily deal with this dynamic pleased no one — crucial independents, who broke overwhelmingly to the GOP, nor the base.

Who am I to disagree with Dr. Bob? But I want to add that it was more than that. Defending one’s state against the onslaught of the federal leviathan is a constitutional charge. So it is a legitimate issue. But Senator Deeds, reflective of today’s ingrained liberalism, at the very least couldn’t respond to the issues because he doesn’t understand the 10th Amendment. Doubtful. So that leaves the worst, but more likely, case — a total disregard for it. When state politicians become too comfortable accepting mandates and force-fed programs from Washington, which stunt states from their roles as democratic laboratories and distinctly different places to live, they deserve to lose. Indeed, federal issues always have and always will be integral to state issues because the constitutional relationship of states to the national government demands it.  

Probably not too many of you have heard the name of Erroll Southers, but he is President Barack Obama’s nominee to head up the Transporation Safety Administration (see Federal Times). As it turns out, once upon a time, Southers used his access to government records to spy on his ex-wife’s boyfriend (see Washington Post). Unfortunately, that makes him a natural fit for the Obama administration. Not only does he have the Obama requisites of cheating and government Big Brother control, but he’s not committing to rule out unionization at the TSA. So he has the radical ideological pedigree, too. That issue alone flipped the U.S. Senate to Republican control in the unprecedented 2002 mid-term election.

It’s not surprising that in an era when the treasury secretary cheated on his taxes (and a sycophant Senate cowed) and the president hired an avowed communist for his White House staff (Van Jones), among the many Maoists (Anita Dunn) and other controversial appointments, that this incident from Southers’ past practically fails to register. After all, the only thing at stake is national security and individual liberty. Maybe if the administration cared more about real security threats than about appointing people with dubious backgrounds, President Obama’s government would be less dysfunctional.

We’re accustomed to liberal attempts to redefine the natural order of life. However, in the Age of Obama, those attempts no longer come through persuasion, but through power accumulated from corruption and incompetence purported to be the “best and brightest.” 

Today, pro-family Virginians are celebrating yesterday’s election of candidates whom we believe hold to, and will govern by, values you and I share. After months of working hard either for candidates or organizations like The Family Foundation to educate voters, seeing the fruit of that labor is sweet indeed.

Exit polling found that evangelicals made up more than one-third of voters yesterday and 83 percent of those voted for the pro-life, pro-family candidates. Those numbers surpass the high water mark of pro-family involvement in any Virginia election to date!

No one can question that our Winning Matters campaign had an incredible effect on voter turnout. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the campaign by donating financially, distributing Voter Guides, Report Cards, holding voter registration drives, and a multitude of other activities. Your efforts made a huge impact yesterday.

But now, the work begins.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m as thrilled as you that Virginians sent a clear message to President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (not to mention Mark Warner, Jim Webb and the like) that we reject the debt riddled policies they are pushing. I’m excited that we have a Governor-elect, Lt. Governor-elect and Attorney General-elect who share our values. But I also know that we’ve been here before, in the days after elections, thinking that the work was done only to learn that it was far from over. We need to hold all of our newly elected officials to their promises.

Even with a larger conservative majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, the obstacle that our pro-family, pro-life agenda has faced for several years – the Virginia Senate – stands between us and our goals. While we hope members of that chamber also get the message of last night’s election results, they have two years before they face the voters. If history is any indication, they are hoping that you will have forgotten by then.

The first opportunities to affect the Senate will come with two special elections in the next few weeks. With Ken Cuccinelli’s victory last night, there will be an election to replace him in his Fairfax Senate seat. In addition, Senator Ken Stolle won election to sheriff of Virginia Beach, meaning that there will be an election for that seat as well.

Here is the commitment I’m asking you to make today: we will not stop, we will not rest, until the Senate of Virginia reflects our values! We will not stop working until that chamber joins the rest of our leaders in supporting common sense pro-life and pro-family proposals.

We have the opportunity in the upcoming session to give all 40 members of the Senate the chance to vote on legislation that reflects our values – and if they reject those values again, we have to make them pay the price at the ballot box in 2011.

I also encourage you to pray for all the newly elected candidates. In particular, over the next few months Governor-elect McDonnell will select key advisers, cabinet members and a multitude of officials on boards and commissions. Please pray that he appoints qualified, principled conservatives to those positions, the impact of which will go on well after he leaves office. It is often said that “personnel is policy,” so selecting those he will take counsel from in the years ahead is crucial for the new governor.

But today, celebrate. Enjoy a hard fought victory. Then get ready to join The Family Foundation as we look only to the future.

It’s one thing to be thrown under the bus, but quite another when the driver drives over you, then puts it in reverse and flattens you again. Even if the driver feels guilty and gets out to see if he can help, it’s still rubbing salt in the wound — which is how Creigh Deeds must feel after President Barack Obama agreed to campaign for him this week after this article Friday in the Washington Post pretty much undermined what’s left of his gubernatorial campaign.

The president wants plausible deniability that he and his policies have nothing to do with the sinking Deeds ship, yet he’s still coming to campaign for him. Part of his legendary ego? Who knows? Pretty strange, even for this crowd, and disturbing to Virginia Dems, as this Post follow-up concludes.

The White House says Deeds has been too negative. This from the crew compiling an enemies list that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of all people. Plus, it’s helped New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine shred Republican Chris Christie into confetti with a television assault never before seen. Bill Pascoe of CQ Politics’ In The Right blog struggles with the difficult task of trying to make sense of it all.

President Barack Obama’s selection to lead the federal Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools isn’t your ordinary left wing radical. To paraphrase Mark Warner, he’s not just that. Kevin Jennings has a history of verbally attacking Christians and has been part and parcel of radical homosexual groups.

He founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and served as its executive director until 2008. GLESN is primarily known for its institutionalization of so-called Gay Straight Alliances in many public schools, including middle and high schools in Virginia.

The Family Research Council has assembled a vast record of Jennings’ own words and deeds, all of which make clear he is unfit for any office, much less one that has extensive oversight of American children and students. His agenda has little to do with the safety — instead, it puts children at serious physical, emotional and spiritual risk. Here are only a few examples:

In a 1995 speech, Jennings admitted that GLESN’s rhetoric about “safety” was a political device:

We immediately seized upon the opponent’s calling card — safety . . . . [W]e automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one.

In a 1997 speech, he spoke about actively “promoting” homosexuality:

We were busy putting out press releases, and saying, “We’re not promoting homosexuality, that’s not what our program’s about. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” [But] being finished [with our efforts] might some day mean that most straight people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality, would say, “Yeah, who cares?” . . . That is our mission from this day forward.

Jennings also has a hateful bigotry toward Christianity. When talking about Biblical values and those who oppose the GSA agenda, he said those views are . . .

not-yet-fully evolved views maybe because of [their] proximity to the Everglades (from whose ooze [they] may have recently climbed), [but] I can’t dismiss them as the ravings of a single troglodyte. Instead, they represent a classic example of how right-wing extremists continually try to mislead the public about the nature and purpose of GSAs.

If all this isn’t enough, Jennings has admitted knowledge of a sexual relationship between a high school sophomore and an older man and did not report that statutory rape! (See FoxNews.com.) He also has admited that one of his idols is Harry Hay, a major supporter of the North American Man Boy Love Association (which wants to legalize adult men and boy unions). Furthermore, Jennings’ only experience in education is in incorporating in it a homosexual agenda. (He penned a forward to a book about how to advance the homosexual agenda in schools).

First, President Obama appointed to his inner circle admitted communist and 9/11 “truther” Van Jones. But just as Jones was forced out, Jennings can be stopped as well (see ABCNews.com’s Politcal Punch Blog). Learn what you can do to stop the appointment of Jennings, now! Click on  www.stopjennings.org and take action today!

Despite his boss, President Barack Obama, calling on high-ranking officials to have “empathy” (especially judges), Governor/DNC Chairman Tim Kaine is showing a surprising lack of it toward the animal rights wing of the Democrat base. Yesterday, PETA announced it wants to rent Botetourt Correctional Center in Troutville, after the commonwealth closes it, for a chicken empathy museum (see nbcwashington.com).

Early reports, however, are that the governor is hiding behind a policy that Virginia does not rent surplus buildings. He just may be right — these are tough times to be a governor. First, he betrayed the Planned Parenthood wing of the Democrat base by signing the Choose Life License Plate bill. Now he’s betraying the animal rights base. That rascally right-wing Kaine!