Free Republic

Despite talk about easing burdens on businesses to encourage them to create jobs, companies in Virginia will be paying more in taxes come Jan. 1. The state unemployment tax that businesses pay on each employee will be going up, from an average of $95 per employee per year to an average of $171 a year in 2010, $234 in 2011 and $263 in 2012. The tax goes into the fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits... When the unemployment fund gets low, it triggers an automatic increase in the tax. The increase is determined by a formula. Virginia Employment...

Outgoing Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, recently told participants at the 11th annual American Democracy Conference in Charlottesville that the "corrosive" Tea Party movement was "devouring" the Republican Party. A recent Rasmussen poll, which found "Tea Party" more popular than the GOP, seemed to confirm Kaine's point. The growing grass-roots movement will indeed destroy the political careers of many politicians who fail to heed the warning it delivered Sept. 12, when 1.7 million angry voters (according to a crowd estimate by Zac Moilanen of Indiana University) descended on Washington to say they were totally fed...

Kaine: Tea parties 'savaging the GOP' By: Andy Barr December 3, 2009 03:58 PM EST Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Thursday that the tea party movement is “savaging” the Republican Party and is already proving “corrosive” in key GOP primaries. Speaking at the 11th annual American Democracy Conference hosted by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics and POLITICO, Kaine argued that while the “headwind” may be against Democrats heading into 2010, divisions within the GOP will prove deadly to the Republican brand. “The tea party movement is savaging the GOP,” he said. “It is something that we...

email from Equality VA, a pro-homosexual group in VA: Exciting news! The Kaine administration has started the rulemaking process that could result in state employees being able to choose either to include either a spouse or an “otherwise qualified adult” on their state health insurance plan. Equality Virginia has been working to achieve this goal for the past year. These efforts finally have resulted in publication of aNotice of Intended Regulatory Action that is the first step in a long process that will not conclude until months after Governor-elect McDonnell takes office in January. To move this proposal from suggestion...

He calls them “the teabag party,” actually, which I guess is slightly better than “teabaggers.” His hosannas to comparative Democratic unity and imminent Republican civil war come on a day when PPP, a lefty polling firm, declares that the top eight most vulnerable Senate seats next year are all currently occupied by Democrats. Not 24 hours ago, Rasmussen reported that Blanche Lincoln — a.k.a. vote number 60 on ObamaCare — trails four different Republicans in hypothetical match-ups, and there’s no mystery why: Against all four Republicans, she leads by wide margins among those who favor the health care plan proposed...

Gov. Tim Kaine did a victory lap around Virginia on Tuesday to mark the beginning of a historic ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, speaking confidently of the law's longevity despite his successor's opposition to it. Flanked by legislative allies at Chadwicks restaurant in Alexandria, the outgoing governor said the ban would cut heart and lung disease associated with exposure to secondhand smoke among restaurant patrons and workers, while not hurting the businesses' bottom lines. The stop was sandwiched by visits to Charlottesville and Richmond. The new law represents one to Kaine's few major policy wins in a term...

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine emerged from a closed-door meeting with his top economic advisers Monday, saying that to offset a projected budget shortfall next year, he may have to raise taxes -- a prospect quickly dismissed by Gov.-elect Robert F. McDonnell. After meeting with his Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, Mr. Kaine said he won't take anything off the table when it comes to fulfilling his responsibility to protect the state's AAA bond rating, providing Virginians with necessary services and keeping the state competitive to attract business. The purpose of the meeting was to set revenue projections that will be...

RICHMOND | The governors of Virginia and Maryland, both Catholics, said Tuesday that it would be wrong for the church to suspend or reduce social services in the nation's capital if the District approves gay marriage. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley criticized the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington's response to the District's gay marriage proposal during a joint appearance on Washington radio station WTOP. The D.C. Council is expected to approve gay marriage next month. The archdiocese says that unless the proposal is amended to add a religious exemption, its Catholic Charities won't be able to continue...

VIRGINIA, Va. -- It's probably the last time that Timothy M. Kaine will step outside his house in the morning to find two dead deer and a turkey on his doorstep. But yesterday, the outgoing Virginia governor and his wife, first lady Anne Holton, stood outside the Executive Mansion in Richmond to preside over a Thanksgiving tradition that dates to the late 1600s -- Virginia's Indian tribes paying tribute to the governor. On a damp and gray but mild morning, Kaine welcomed about 200 people, including members of several generations of Indians in traditional garb, as well as Capitol Square...

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who leaves office in January, today encouraged people with nonviolent felony convictions who have paid their debt to society to apply to have their voting rights restored. Speaking on his monthly call-in radio show on WTOP in Washington, Kaine noted that both he and his predecessor as governor, Mark R. Warner, have restored the rights of more Virginians than any of the previous governors of the commonwealth combined. Virginia and Kentucky are the only states that require people who have lost their rights through felony convictions to apply for reinstatement. In addition to voting rights, convicted...

RICHMOND | Civil rights organizations are asking Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to sign an executive order restoring the rights of nearly 300,000 felons before he leaves office in January. Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that permanently strip felons of their civil rights, such as voting, serving on juries or holding public office. In Virginia, the power to restore those rights lies solely with the governor. Mr. Kaine has restored rights to more than 4,000, felons, a greater number than under any other Virginia governor. He and former Gov. Mark Warner, a fellow Democrat, restored more altogether than...

RICHMOND, Va. - With his state under an emergency declaration because of heavy rain and floods Thursday, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was in Arkansas for a Democratic fundraiser. Kaine is chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He appeared Thursday with Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe at a closed $250-per-ticket luncheon at a home in Little Rock. -snip-

RICHMOND, Va. – Gov. Tim Kaine denied clemency Tuesday for sniper John Allen Muhammad, clearing the way for him to be executed for the attacks that terrorized the nation's capital region for three weeks in 2002. Muhammad is set to die by injection Tuesday night at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. His attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has cleared the way for the execution of sniper John Allen Muhammad. Kaine denied Muhammad's clemency request Tuesday. Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night at a Virginia prison for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station during a three-week spree that left 10 people dead in 2002 across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to block the execution of John A. Muhammad, the sniper who terrorized the Washington area seven years ago. The step cleared the way for Mr. Muhammad to be put to death on Tuesday unless Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia intervenes. The court did not comment in refusing to hear Mr. Muhammad’s appeal, but three justices objected to the relative haste accompanying the execution. Justice John Paul Stevens complained that “under our normal practice,” Mr. Muhammad’s petition for the court to take his case would have been discussed at the justices’ conference scheduled...

The Talk Shows Sunday, November 8th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell; Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent; Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Mike Pence, R-Ind.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Govs. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., and Ed Rendell, D-Pa.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.THIS WEEK (ABC): Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele; Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Army chief of staff Casey; Virginia...

A Video Tour Of The Virginia Governor's Mansion

Despite court prodding and changes in state election laws, 16 Virginia localities have failed to meet a deadline to allow absentee ballots of military personnel serving overseas to be counted on time. Nancy Rodriques, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said she did not know how many ballots will not be counted. The local election districts include the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights and Williamsburg as well as Caroline County. "Words cannot express my disappointment in our commonwealth," said Rusty McGuire of Hanover County, chairman of the Iraqi Freedom Veterans Plate Project and deputy commonwealth's attorney in Louisa County....

The decision by Herndon's mayor and several Town Council members to protest a Democratic fundraiser last month and a fiery community meeting that followed have ignited a free-speech debate and opened old wounds about the town's tough anti-illegal immigration policies. The hubbub started Sept. 16 in downtown Herndon...Mayor Stephen J. DeBenedettis and council members Dennis D. Husch, William B. Tirrell Sr. and Charlie D. Waddell, Republicans, joined a handful of sign-holding protesters outside a fundraiser where Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) was speaking... Republicans used it as a chance to hold a "tea party" to protest policies of President...

A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality. John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his son. The book is published by MTV Books. Davis found the book...

High school teacher keeps job after handing out pornographic 'banned book' - A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality. John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his...

SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate." A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers. And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative...

Is Virginia denying military voters the chance to vote in its state election this November? That’s what I gather from this post from the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder and this post from Republican blogger Soren Dayton. There’s some shabby history here. In 1944 Republicans and Southern Democrats in Congress ganged up to make it difficult for military personnel—about 12 million men at the time—to vote; Republicans believed that most G.I.s would vote for Franklin Roosevelt, and Southern Democrats feared that black G.I.s would vote and get into the habit of voting. In 2000 some Democrats in Florida tried to prevent military...

Last year, we covered some of the problems in the counting of military absentee ballots in Virginia, as did others. This problem has not gone away. It has just moved. The day before election day 2008, the McCain campaign filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia to force Virginia to count military absentee ballots that came in after election day. McCain lost Virginia by more than enough votes, but the case went on with the Department of Justice replacing the McCain campaign.There were filings last month and will likely be a hearing this month. So what? The Virginia...

The Democratic National Committee is sending an additional $1 million to aid Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds’ campaign, POLITICO has learned. The money comes in addition to the $5 million the party committee has already committed to the Virginia race, one of two governors races in the country this fall. “We’re thrilled with the additional commitment from Governor Kaine and the DNC,” said Deeds senior adviser Mo Elleithee. “The fact that they are digging so deep shows that they’re fully committed to Creigh and to this race, and we’re appreciative of their continued support.” In addition to the cash,...

The State of Virginia has argued in a federal court filing that they can legally send out absentee ballots to active duty soldiers the day before an election. Restated again, the Democratic Chairwoman of the Virginia State Board of Election (appointed by the Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, in his capacity as Virginia Governor) Jean Cunningham just claimed a legal basis for massively raising the barrier to voting for soldiers at war.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Monday he can't think of any reason he would stop the execution of Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad. Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 killing spree that left 10 dead in the nation's capital, Virginia and Maryland. "I know of nothing in this case now that would suggest that there is any credible claim of innocence or that there was anything procedurally wrong with the prosecution," Kaine said on his monthly call-in radio show on WTOP. Kaine said he would review Muhammad's petition for clemency when he...

Virginia’s Democratic governor has ignited public outrage by pardoning—at the request of a major political donor—three men convicted of raping and killing a teenager. Gov. Tim Kaine ordered freedom for three of four former sailors who raped and murdered another sailor's 18-year-old wife in 1997. The men had all confessed to the gruesome crimes and were serving life sentences before the good governor came to their rescue this week. Kaine said he decided there are “serious doubts about at least the level of their complicity in the crime,” though the governor did find that the “combined weight of all the...

The Democratic Party In the last few months, we've made more progress on health insurance reform than we made in the previous 60 years. You can tell from the reaction of reform opponents that we're doing something right. Special interests who profit from the status quo are spreading brazen lies that stir up anger, and Republican leaders are chiming in with over-the-top rhetoric that detracts from the public debate. Just last week, Rush Limbaugh insinuated that President Obama was comparable to Adolf Hitler. It's a perfect example of "the old politics of fear and division" that President Obama talked about...

Three men convicted in the rape and slaying of a fellow sailor's wife more than a decade ago will walk free to the outrage of the victim's family—who blamed the decision on political pressure from novelist John Grisham—and the men's supporters, who say it's not enough and want them declared innnocent. Gov. Tim Kaine on Thursday granted conditional pardons to ex-sailors Derek Tice, Danial Williams and Joseph Dick Jr. They along another ex-sailor Eric Wilson were known as "The Norfolk Four" and convicted in the 1997 slaying of 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko. Tice, Williams and Dick were sentenced to life in...

RICHMOND, Aug. 5 -- Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Wednesday that state agencies will need to cut $700 million to $1.5 billion more this year as Virginia continues to suffer from one of the worst financial crises in decades. Kaine (D) has asked state agencies for proposed cuts of up to 15 percent and will announce the specific trims by Labor Day. He said the shortfall will lead to layoffs, but he does not know how many. -snip-

Timothy M. Kaine said he has been spending a day and a half of each workweek handling fundraising and policy matters for the Democratic National Committee, a departure from his pledge to conduct most of his national party work by phone and fax and restrict it largely to evenings and weekends while he is governor of Virginia. In an interview in his office on Capitol Square, Kaine said he typically spends one day a week traveling as his party's national chairman and half a day working at the party's headquarters in Washington. But Kaine said he remains in constant contact...

The bad news is that the Washington Post doesn't know where Virginia governor Tim Kaine is. The good news is they're pretty sure he's not in Appalachia or Argentina: But repeated attempts to review Kaine's schedule — in Richmond, around the state or across the country — before and after he became DNC chairman in late January have been unsuccessful. The Washington Post has requested Kaine's calendar through the governor's office, the DNC and his political action committee, Moving Virginia Forward. The requests have been denied or gone unanswered.

The bad news is that the Washington Post doesn't know where Virginia governor Tim Kaine is. The good news is they're pretty sure he's not in Appalachia or Argentina: But repeated attempts to review Kaine's schedule — in Richmond, around the state or across the country — before and after he became DNC chairman in late January have been unsuccessful. The Washington Post has requested Kaine's calendar through the governor's office, the DNC and his political action committee, Moving Virginia Forward. The requests have been denied or gone unanswered. Kaine's office cites security and privacy concerns, as well as state...

MAS' Esam Omeish Seeks Virginia Office Campaign Mum on MAS Ties, Radical Omeish Speeches IPT News May 1, 2009 The last time the public got a good look at Esam Omeish, he was resigning from a Virginia immigration panel, claiming that the posting of videos showing him praising Palestinians who chose "the jihad way" to liberate their land was part of a smear campaign against him. Now Omeish is diving into the deep end of smear campaigns, offering himself as a candidate for a partisan legislative seat in Northern Virginia. Omeish is among four Democrats vying to win their party's...

Few places in Virginia are as draining to the soul and as numbing to the buttocks as the branch offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles. And yet, until recently, smiling was still permitted there. No more. As part of the DMV's effort to develop super-secure driver's licenses and foolproof identification cards, the agency has issued a smile ban, directing customers to adopt a "neutral expression" in their portraits, thereby extinguishing whatever happiness comes with finally hearing one's number called. The driver's license photo, it seems, is destined to look like a mug shot. DMV officials say the smile ban...

**My Comment: Timothy M. Kaine and gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe are "changeing" the facts to make it a story they can run with* Liberty University officials insisted Friday that they revoked recognition of the College Democrats club for religious reasons and not political ones, and they weren’t trying to stifle free speech. Politicians, including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, urged the private school to reconsider. Using the letterhead of the Democratic National Committee, of which Kaine is chairman, he asked the school “to reverse this attack on the liberty of its students.” LU chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said the political club’s...

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, has come under fire from a watchdog group and Democrats for using taxpayer-funded staff to work on a new policy organization he has set up. A spokesman for Cantor said the House minority whip has done nothing wrong and that policy organizations are common in Congress. The complaints center around the National Council for a New America, which Cantor helped establish recently. It is designed to develop policy through a series of town-hall meetings. When it was announced, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said it would be bipartisan, but the initial...

Republicans anxious to start their trek back from the political wilderness have their hopes pinned on gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia this year. And in Virginia, there are already signs of hope for Republicans eager to dispel the notion that Barack Obama has permanently altered the political terrain. For starters, while the Republicans have already selected former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell as their own candidate, the Democratic gubernatorial primary has become a political donnybrook. What was a low-key race has recently heated up with a series of contentious debates, as Clinton friend and former DNC Chairman Terry...

$10M ransom payment, or hackers will post Virginians' private files The FBI is on the trail of hackers who claim to have accessed the personal information of millions of Virginians. They're holding the information hostage, and are threatening to dispurse the sensitive data on the Internet if they don't receive a $10 million ransom. The hacker or hackers posted the ransom note on "Wikileaks," a Web site that allows for anonymous tips about leaks of government information. The note claims that the personal information came from a raid on a state agency's computer database, and that the hackers are now...

On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama began his death march as the most anti-life president in U.S. history. Today marks Obama's 100th day in office. This list substantiates Obama's personnel and policies to that end. He actually started way before Day 1: Day -75: Names pro-abortion Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff, who earned a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL while congressman. Day -59: Appoints executive director of EMILY's List, Ellen Moran, as White House communications director. Day -56: Names Melody Barnes, who previously served on the boards of EMILY's List and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, as his director...

A new report produced by a branch of the Virginia State Police portrays the state's colleges and universities as potential breeding grounds for terrorism. The 200-page report, intended for distribution to law enforcement, intelligence and military organizations, says "a wide variety of terror or extremist groups" have links to Hampton Roads and singles out the area's two historically black universities for special mention. It also cites the region's "diverse population due to the strong military presence." In addition, it mentions Regent University, an evangelical Christian school in Virginia Beach, and a Chesapeake-based anti-abortion group. The report acknowledges that none of...

LOUDOUN -- Behind the wheel, you want the least amount of distraction possible. So why is a local transportation agency painting crooked lines on the road on purpose? The Virginia Department of Transportation says it's part of a safety campaign to get drivers to slow down in a high pedestrian and bicycle area. The 500 feet of zig-zagging lines are painted on the ground on Belmont Ridge Road, where it intersects with the Washington and Old Dominion trail in Loudoun County. "It is a low cost strategy to get motorists to slow down as they approach the bike trail and...

President Barack Obama on Saturday chose two Indian-Americans to help to streamline the federal government and cut costs. Obama named Aneesh Chopra, the Harvard-educated secretary of technology for the state of Virginia, as the federal government's first chief technology officer. Chopra, 36, will help reduce health care costs and foster cybersecurity. "In this role, Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities - from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure," Obama said in his Saturday radio and Internet address. Chopra's corporate experience included working as managing director of the Advisory...

Is this the new politics Barack Obama promised to bring to Washington? His hand-picked DNC Chairman just went on national TV and claimed the Obama administration never requested Georgetown to cover up the IHS monogram representing the name of Christ. Confronted with a CNSNews.com article flatly reporting that such a request had indeed been made, Tim Kaine resorted to the hoary dodge of claiming he hadn't seen the story. Adding insult to injury, Kaine even claimed to be ignorant of CNSNews.com itself, NewsBusters' sister organization. Kaine made his credulity-busting claims during a Morning Joe appearance today. View video.

Dear xxxxxx, $125,000,000. That's how much of our money won't be coming here to help struggling Virginia families, thanks to a partisan maneuver last week by Bob McDonnell and the Virginia House Republicans. They chose to reject $125 million of our federal stimulus money, sending it back to Washington instead of boosting Virginia's economy and helping Virginia families. It's time for us to Stand Up for Virginia. Today, we are launching a grassroots petition that empowers Virginians to express their outrage over this dangerous decision - and calls on the Republican House of Delegates to fix the mess they made...

examiner.com — Almost nobody expected Governor Tim Kaine's veto of HB 1851 to be sustained by the Virginia General Assembly after Kaine insulted military members with his dishonest veto message. But "the biggest surprise of the day" was the flip flop votes of 6 Virginia Senate Democrats . . .

The House turned down amendments by Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that were necessary to make Virginia eligible for the federal aid. RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia's Republican-run House of Delegates rejected a proposed expansion of unemployment benefits Wednesday, along with $125 million in federal stimulus cash to pay for it. On a mostly party-line 46-53 vote, the House turned down amendments by Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that were necessary to make Virginia eligible for the federal aid.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's Republican-run House of Delegates has rejected a proposed expansion of unemployment benefits and $125 million in federal stimulus cash to pay for it. On largely a party-line vote, the House on Wednesday turned down amendments by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine that were necessary to make Virginia eligible for the federal aid. break Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the measure because it expands jobless benefits for the first time to part-time workers and because it would eventually boost taxes on employers. break

Virginia Governor Kaine insults military with gun bill veto -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last week National Democratic Party Chairman and part-time Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was labeled by the Washington Times as "out of touch" for vetoing almost every pro-gun bill this year for "mindless" reasons. . . . But Kaine's veto of one gun bill takes the cake by insulting American military personnel with a clearly erroneous veto message. . . . See more at http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gu...t-veto-message