WataugaWatch

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx has an interview with GoBlueRidge up this a.m. She utters the words "leftist" and "very radical leftist" and then pivots immediately to point with alarm at Mexican people: "I believe the next thing that will be done will be to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants."

If you can't win on the facts, pound the table and yell, eh Madam Foxx?

This from the fine and upstanding human being who said the following things:

"There are no Americans who don't have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare." July 24, 2009, in a Capitol Hill press conference

A Republican health care plan would "make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all Americans and that ensures affordable access for all Americans and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government." July 28, 2009, on the floor of the U.S. Congress

"I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that [health reform] bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country." November 2, 2009, on the floor of the U.S. House

"I don't see raising the minimum wage as helping American workers." Quoted in an article in Roll Call, Dec. 10, 2009

Labels: health care, immigration policy, Virginia Foxx

NYTimes quoted a certain local Congresswoman late last night RE the health insurance reform bill:

Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, said it was "one of the most offensive pieces of social engineering legislation in the history of the United States."

Let's see now: the interference of the Republican Congress in the Terri Schiavo case in March 2005 was not, then, the most obnoxious "social engineering legislation in the history of the United States"? We watched Bobblehead Foxx cheerleading in the U.S. House through that particular debate.

She's against "social engineering legislation," except when she's for it.

Labels: health care, Virginia Foxx

Foot soldiers for the Republican minority in Congress -- a devil's sabbath of tea partiers, birthers, racists, bigots -- invaded the Capitol yesterday. They chanted "faggot" at Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). They chanted "nigger" at Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), both members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Someone spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), another black legislator, and House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said, "I have heard things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to get off the back of the bus."

That's just the slime that's gotten reported.

Yup. We shore do hope these fine specimens of humanity are the people who get control of our government!

At least one Republican member of Congress on the Sunday Morning Gasbag shows tried to excuse the behavior -- "Well, people are just so angry" -- without bothering to acknowledge that the misplaced rage has been artificially ginned up by a wealth of misinformation and outright lies spewed by leading Republicans and going back at least a year. Sarah Palin had her tongue all wrapped up in that. And Michele Bachmann. So did our own Rep. Virginia A. Foxx ("at least we Republicans won't be putting people to death like the Democrats!"). The gullible, the naive, the under-informed either fell for that bilge or find it convenient to hang their racism from those particular hat racks.

Haven't been personally enthusiastic about the Senate bill about to be passed, but I confess to being driven to root now for its passage, witnessing the desperation of Karl Rove on ABC this a.m. Rove was either severely over-caffeinated or showing the true panic of realizing a Democratic victory in this matter will damage his own ... shall we be generous and call it "his own legacy"? (His credibility was already as damaged as a Pinto in a roll-over.)

Or take the true creepy mendacity of the fake memo trotted out on the House floor by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) yesterday. Unfortunately for Garrett, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) also happened to be present, and he don't take no shit. Weiner called out Republicans for the lie, while our own Virginia Foxx tried futilely to come to Garrett's aid. Watch it.

Labels: health care, homophobia, Michelle Bachmann, racism, Sarah Palin, Virginia Foxx

Madam Foxx held her townhall in Statesville on Monday and then went to Congress on Tuesday and lied about it:

Yesterday I had a town hall in Statesville, North Carolina, with about 175 people there. They are very upset about this proposed health care reform bill.

The estimate of 175 people is off by 50-75, but worse is her complete failure to admit that at least 40% of that crowd supported the president and not her. Until her staff started screening the questions, they were running 2-1 against her position. Then suddenly, the only people called on were fawning sycophants.

Labels: health care, Virginia Foxx

PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times "to help you find the truth in American politics," has done a detailed and point-by-point fact-check on a statement by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx which she made on the floor of the U.S. House on March 9, 2010:

"The economy began its nose dive when Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007."

Among the many factual problems with such a partisan and self-serving statement (which you can read for yourself at the link above), PolitiFact included a comment from an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation that "the economy did not technically begin a nose dive when the Democrats took over" and that Madam Foxx had established "no statistical causation between political party in power and economic growth."

She should stick to what she knows, or to what Republican spin-meister Frank Luntz tells her to say, or to those reliable stand-bys of blaming poor people for getting hungry and Matthew Shepherd for having money enough to get robbed and murdered.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Among the several small nuggets embedded in Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's performance yesterday at the Statesville town hall event was her sweeping endorsement of privatization: "I don't know anything the government can do better than the private sector."

"I don't know anything" covers a lot of real estate. Blackwater-style mercenaries are to be preferred to U.S. soldiers? Certainly, we now realize her preference that poor school children should eat chalk dust rather than government-sponsored free lunches. Poor sick people, heal yourselves! And then there's the biggest prize of all for Foxx and her fellow travelers ... Social Security.

Foxx's main squeeze, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, published his "Roadmap for America" recently, which called for the phasing out of Social Security and the further shift of wealth upward. We note that Ryan and the rest of the Republican Caucus have dropped the word "privatization" from their vocabulary, preferring now the word "choice" in its place, but Foxx yesterday in Statesville was pretty naked in her advocacy for throwing all Americans onto the tender mercies of the corporations.

Why would Foxx go through the motions of pretending to "listen" to her constituents when she's already signed on to the most radical of political philosophies? Oh, right. She's running for reelection against three different competitors and needs to pretend that she actually cares what voters think. And that she's not a radical extremist with political views that would seem perfectly at home in the court of King Louis XIV.

Paul Krugman's column today details the dishonest motives behind Ryan's attempt to hide "privatization" from public view. Yesterday in Statesville, Foxx let that door swing open a crack.

Labels: Paul Ryan, Virginia Foxx

Guest blogging: Billy Kennedy, candidate for Congress:

After Rep. Foxx's health care town hall today, I searched the Constitution to see where it says we taxpayers are supposed to be subsidizing her personal health care insurance. I couldn't find it.

You see, Rep. Foxx says unless something is expressly written in the Constitution, then we the people have no right to want or expect it. In fact, that was the exact question I had for her today (had I been called on). I wanted to know, since she's been a politician for the last 27 years, when was the last time the taxpayers weren't paying for her insurance?

It's fine for Ms. Foxx to stand up there today and tell folks that the people need to handle their own health care costs, that the government can't do anything right (so why even try?) and that our current system is the best in the world, when she lets the government handle her health needs and expects us to hand over our hard-earned dollars not just for our health needs, but for hers too.

Our health system is indeed the greatest in the world. For her. For those of us who aren't on government programs like Medicare or Medicaid, or Tri-Care or the Federal Health Care plan, not so great.

The saddest moment of the day came when a gentleman stood up to talk about how his son had tried for seven years to get government disability due to his cystic fibrosis. This nice man choked up when he recounted how his son had died shortly after he received disability benefits he'd fought so hard for. Ms. Foxx's reply was, "Government shouldn't have been handling this."

Now I thought to myself: if government shouldn't have been handling it, just who does Rep. Foxx thinks should have? Does she honestly believe private insurance was an option? But then, I checked. Indeed, there is nothing in the Constitution about helping out people who have a disability from the coughing, fatigue, pneumonia and pain of cystic fibrosis. In fact, I couldn't find a single one of those words, so I guess, by her view, she's right.

Ms. Foxx says she is all about health care reform. She says we need to do something, and that her idea is to lower health costs by expanding Health Savings Accounts, limiting the ability of people to sue if they have been physically injured through the actions of a hospital or their doctor, and allowing insurance to be purchased across state lines.

Of course all of us know that Health Savings Accounts are mostly just an option for healthy and wealthy families, since a lot of us just don't have the money to pay into one in the first place and, even if we did, we could never be able to save enough to pay for cancer treatments out of pocket.

When someone asked how it would work if we let health care companies sell their policies across state lines since the states regulated the companies, Rep. Foxx replied that working people might not really want "all those restrictions on the health care corporations" anyhow. Of course, as a wealthy politician who's covered by a taxpayer-subsidized insurance plan regulated by the federal government, she has nothing to lose from letting the rest of us fend for ourselves in an unregulated insurance free-for-all.

As for tort reform, the Congressional Budget Office says that wouldn't reduce total U.S. health care spending by more than about 0.5 percent.

...But I'd be willing to talk that one out with Rep. Foxx -- if she'd agree to give up her government health care in return for it.

Labels: Billy Kennedy, health care, Virginia Foxx

All of our shaming of Virginia Foxx for being afraid to face the people in an open setting has finally paid off: The representative is holding a "Health Care Solutions Town Hall" in Statesville tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. (Statesville Civic Center, Room B, 300 South Center Street).

11:30 a.m.?

Doesn't seem like a time that might optimize attendance by working people. Just sayin'.

It's also physically about as far away from Watauga County as you can get in the 5th District, but the roads are paved from here to there, so distance can be overcome.

What probably can't be overcome is the Madam's inability to actually hear any opinions that differ materially from her own. So we'll see.

Labels: health care, Virginia Foxx

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx has made a spectacle of herself slobbering all over certain men in Washington. There was the famous lip assault on George W. Bush, the fawning failure to detect any illegal drug use from a perusal of Roger Clemens' blown-up photographs, and now it's Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan that Foxx has fixated on with unhealthy affection.

Why?

Because Ryan has written a Republican "budget plan," "A Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010," that aims to zero out Social Security and Medicare. The Madam, like most of her fellow conservatives, hates Social Security and Medicare and itches with an itch she can't quite scratch to get rid of all such safety nets.

Congressman Ryan allows her and her fellow Republicans in Congress to scratch that itch.

The non-partisan Tax Policy Center, in a detailed analysis of Mr. Ryan's numbers, sez that Congressman Ryan's budget numbers would actually continue and accelerate the disastrous economic policies that got us into this current mess ... policies that ensure that the rich get richer. According to the Tax Policy Center, "The Roadmap's tax provisions would be highly regressive compared with the current tax system," benefiting the people who don't need social safety nets and resent like all holy hell having to pay any taxes whatsoever for the "undeserving poor."

Talk like that just makes Madam Foxx feel sexy all over.

Labels: Paul Ryan, Virginia Foxx

Jack Hawke, the infamous NC Republican operative, has bragged that he's the one who "recruited" Virginia Foxx to run for the NC Senate in 1994. He apparently has, in other words, a fatal attraction for the extreme and the unstable, because he also signed on for the Tim D'Annunzio primary campaign down in the NC-8. D'Annunzio went from zero to 60 on the nut-job scale in just under three seconds, being outed by Laura Leslie as the author of the I-heart-Armageddon blog and then holding a well publicized "machine-gun social" fundraiser.

Anyhoo, Hawke, by his own words, told D'Annunzio that his blog was a very bad idea. No candidate "should get up at 3 or 4 in the morning, sit down in front of a computer and pour your heart out. It's just not a smart thing to do." Like, never let the voters see your true self, eh, Mr. Hawke? Supposedly, D'Annunzio promised Hawke that he had sworn off blogging, but just couldn't quite do it. So Hawke has resigned from the D'Annunzio campaign, and in a very public way.

Okay okay, bloggers are like alcoholics, only without the charming party tricks. We get that.

But, now, about this Jack-Hawke-recruited-the-Foxx-gnome factoid ... don't we need to chew on that for ... oh, spit that out! It tastes like gun metal and old hairnets.

Labels: Jack Hawke, Tim D'Annunzio, Virginia Foxx

...Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who for years has made "choking up" in public a regular feature of her political persona.

Another bravura performance on Saturday at the Watauga County Republican Convention. You'll have to read all the way to the end to get it.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Keith Gardner, the hapless Republican primary challenger to Virginia Foxx, is a walking example of cognitive dissonance. He said on GoBlueRidge about Foxx, "She's well known, she's well liked in most of the district. In fact, I like her. However, she's a professional politician. I do not like the idea of a professional politician."

I like her, but I do not like what she is.

Well, it's a start.

Labels: Keith Gardner, Virginia Foxx

Mr. Bumble's philosophy in "Oliver Twist" is to keep the boys and girls in the workhouse hungry. He thinks they work more efficiently on empty stomachs.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's philosophy is that the School Lunch Program is a shocking expenditure and has no place in America. Yesterday Foxx was one of only 13 Republican members of the U.S. Congress to vote against H Res 362. Foxx was alone even among the North Carolina Republican delegation. Patrick McHenry voted for the resolution. Sue Myrick voted for the resolution. Every Republican voted for it except Foxx and her dozen fellow Mr. Bumbles.

Foxx's ideology has no heart, just as corporations have no birth certificate.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

We got an e-mailed press release last night from one of Congressman Patrick McHenry's three primary challengers that apparently agreed with our characterization of the congressman's tone-deafness for introducing a bill to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. Here 'tis in its entirety:

Morganton, NC -- Vance Patterson, 10th District Republican candidate for Congress, says incumbent Patrick McHenry is up to the old tricks "professional politicians" play in election years. McHenry has recently proposed legislation to put Ronald Reagan's picture on the $50 bill.

"To use a great American like Ronald Reagan to get votes in an economically devastated district is nothing short of shameful," Patterson said. "13.6% of our neighbors don't have a $50 bill to look at because they are unemployed."

Patterson prides himself for running a grassroots campaign focused on jobs and term limits. "This proves my point about professional politicians and imposing term limits," Patterson said. "At election time, they suddenly descend on the voters with emotional appeals and irrational actions. Well, 10th district voters know when a politician is grandstanding rather than leading to improve the district and the country."

A successful businessman, Patterson insists that he is running on a platform of "Real World Leadership" and can make a difference.

"It's time to restore core principles to America, and our district voters know that," he said. "I've been busy meeting fellow citizens and they are ready for real leadership in developing a better economy, outstanding education, and affordable health care."

Other than the I-worship-the-false-god-Reagan meme, this could have been written by the Democratic candidate in the NC-10 ... the emphasis on working-class struggles, education, and "affordable health care," none of which Ronald Reagan would ever have moved as policy. (Incidentally, medical science has proven there is no antidote to doting on Reagan in his dotage. Massive injections of fish oil won't do it. Hot Coke enemas have proven ineffective too. Once visited by the Reagan incubus, the victim is rendered incapable of critical thinking.)

We also note in Mr. Patterson's attack on McHenry the use (twice) of the term "professional politicians." Anti-incumbent fever, anyone?

How many years has Virginia Foxx been in elected office? (Answer: 27)

Labels: Patrick McHenry, Vance Patterson, Virginia Foxx

We've had some coverage here (a tad) about Congressman Patty McHenry in the NC-10 and about his two (D'OH! now three) primary challengers, but perhaps we should do a little catching up with the two Democrats in the May 4 primary, vying to take on McHenry come November.

One is Anne N. Fischer of Morganton. She has an active website up and running, is described as a social worker and community activist, and actually ran against McHenry in 2004 in his first campaign.

Her primary opponent is Jeff Gregory, a former Shelby postmaster, who does not yet appear to have a website. But he's speaking out in this a.m.'s Hickory Daily Record about how the 10th Congressional District has suffered under McHenry, who doesn't believe in government and who therefore gets nothing much for his district. "It's time for the people of the 10th District to be heard and seriously represented," he said. "I think that we need to take a 'Big Dog' approach for our district. I'm not afraid of getting on the front porch of Congress and barking loud for our people."

The Patty McHenry/Virginia Foxx philosophy of "service" = "We don't get anything for anybody because of our ideology," and perhaps these hard economic times might actually begin to spotlight the hard, dried fruits of such a philosophy. Having been laughed at over the Sparta Teapot Museum, Foxx has now retreated into a do-nothing crouch and actually brags on her Twitter account about her constipated economic policy: "NO RELIEF for my district, NO NEVER!"

Kentucky Sen. Bunning is also helping at this moment to throw The Wages of Obstructionism into some stark human context.

Labels: Anne N. Fischer, Jeff Gregory, Jim Bunning, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx

This MLS property listing from Davie County is currently owned by Thomas and Virginia Foxx, and if you're into celebrity dwellings, this 3-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath, 2-car attached garage condo in the exclusive gated Bermuda Run subdivision near Advance, N.C., could certainly be yours!

Your new neighbors, we hear, will be ecstatic to meet you.

Labels: Tom Foxx, Virginia Foxx

Filing to run on the ballots of 2010 ended today at noon. Billy Kennedy does not have a Democratic primary, but Virginia Foxx has one on the Republican side.

Someone else filed to run in the Republican primary against Little Patty McHenry in the NC-10 ... David Michael Boldon. Two will be vying on the Democratic side to oppose the eventual winner of the Republican contest (who will be McHenry, we've said all along). We'll be trying to find out about these Democrats: Jeff Gregory and Anne Fischer.

Heath Shuler in the NC-11 has a Democratic primary opponent -- Aixa Wilson. Whole bunch of panic-stricken extras running in the 11th Dist. in the Republican primary.

Previously noted: Larry Kissell has a primary in the NC-8.

What's going on among Republicans in the NC-6? Poor old thousand-year-old Howard Coble has five primary opponents, which, as in the 10th, means he wins.

Labels: Aixa Wilson, Billy Kennedy, David Michael Boldon, Heath Shuler, Howard Coble, Larry Kissell, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx

She had the courage to stand up in front of a mainly hostile crowd last night in Charlotte and take questions for two hours. Never mind the bottomline about whether that hostility was deserved or not. She at least wasn't afraid to take the heat in public.

Lesson for Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who doesn't show up anywhere unless checks are being written. Or where the guests are pre-screened to be slavish butt-kissers. Or where she doesn't know the questions in advance. Oh, she'll do one of those phony telephone "town-halls," come on the line with a guest congressman who takes up half the allotted time, and then she whips up her marshmallow fudge for the last 30 minutes, hoping no one notices how far her placating words are from her iron-hearted actions.

Foxx is a coward. Tee-total coward.

Labels: Sue Myrick, Virginia Foxx

Follow-up on the last post immediately below: DownWithTyranny has a blow-by-blow of the Republican obstructionism yesterday, followed by their complete capitulation on the anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry.

It happens that the DownWithTyranny blogger got in touch with candidate Billy Kennedy here in Watauga to get his take on the insurance industry (comments which we are reproducing at length here):

The insurance companies spend most of their waking hours trying to figure out how to avoid paying for people's medical expenses so they can boost their profit margins. They get away with massive premium price increases and benefits cutting because they have virtually no competition. This is because they enjoy an anti-trust exemption which allows them to engage in price fixing and collusive activity.

The result? By 2008, according to the American Medical Association, a single health insurer controlled 30% or more of the health insurance market in 90% of the metropolitan markets in the country. And, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, health premiums have gone up by 131% for family coverage from 1999 to 2009.

If we are serious about promoting competition among insurance companies to hold down costs, the repeal of the anti-trust exemption is a no-brainer.

Apparently, judging by her vote on the final bill, Virginia Foxx actually agrees with Billy Kennedy. Not.

Turns out this is not the first time Billy Kennedy has appeared recently on DownWithTyranny with a statement on health-insurance reform. In a posting on Tuesday of this week, "How Worthwhile Is Obama's Healthcare Bill?" (the answer: not very, since it contains no public-option competition for profit-gouging private insurance corps), the DownWithTyranny blogger got in touch with a number of Democratic candidates for Congress for their opinions. Among them was Billy Kennedy, and his response (again reproduced here at length) is very instructive:

I am an independent person and will be an independent candidate and office holder as well. I am not beholden to, and will not put myself in the position of becoming beholden to, the corporate interests of the insurance and the pharmaceutical industries over the interests of working Americans. I, like the majority of Americans, am a strong supporter of a public option in any health care reform proposal, but would consider an optional Medicare buy-in in its place. I believe such a buy-in, if well constructed, would get us started on the path of providing competition and cost controls for a greater number of Americans. While there are some good beginning reforms outlined in the President's proposed bill, there is little to nothing in the bill to control costs or drive them down, and there is no proposed Public option or Medicare buy-in. There is no anti-trust exemption repeal, and there is no national exchange. Furthermore, Americans will be mandated to purchase insurance policies they can't afford from for-profit companies subsidized with tax-payer dollars to for-profit companies without some competitive agent (like a public option and/or a Medicare buy-in). In other words, we're a long way from true reform. The good news, however, is it appears the President and the Senate Democrats appear ready to pass health care reform through reconciliation (and it's about time). The unfortunate reality is that the President is not going to push for a public option or Medicare buy in, so that means those of us who believe so strongly that this is essential to any reform must find another means to deliver to Americans what they have strongly supported from the get go: strong non-profit competition to insurance companies. At the time I'm writing this, 20 Senators have signed onto a pledge to vote for a public option through Senate reconciliation. It seems to clear to me at this time, this is where we must apply pressure and demand accountability.

Those words clearly set Kennedy apart from Madam Foxx, who has spent the past year attacking all Democratic ideas for insurance reform and believes, anyway, that "There are no Americans who don't have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare" (July 24, 2009, in a Capitol Hill press conference).

Labels: Billy Kennedy, Down With Tyranny, health care, Virginia Foxx

Turns out that Virginia Foxx is a gutless wonder. Yesterday she voted twice to obstruct a provision that would remove the anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry, and when those efforts to derail the legislation failed, she voted for the actual bill. In other words, in this election year she turns out to be a typical politician, watching her backside and apparently not wanting to be on record as favoring the anti-trust exemption for insurance (the ONLY industry in America that benefits from that exemption, and look where that's gotten us), though perfectly willing to do what she can to prevent the reform from coming up for a vote.

The first procedural vote yesterday was to even consider the bill (H.R. 4626) "to restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers." Every single Republican in the House (and eight blue dog Democrats including the inestimable Heath Shuler) voted to obstruct consideration of this important reform.

Then the Republicans tried to kill the bill by a motion to recommit, which also failed (Foxx voting with all the Republicans save three).

Having failed to derail the reform, on final passage Foxx and most other Republicans voted for the bill, 406-19.

So what was that all about? That was about the obstructionism the Republicans have been practicing for the last year PLUS their pressing need now in this election year to keep their obstructionism and their toadying for the corporations more or less below the radar of what most voters even notice.

Labels: corporate power, health care, Heath Shuler, Virginia Foxx

The "Keith Gardner" who filed to run against Virginia Foxx in the Republican primary on May 4 listed his address on the filing forms at the State Board of Election as 2425 N. Center St. Suite 204, which is the mailing address for the business (Admin on Call, Inc.) for which "V.K. Gardner" is listed as agent on the Secretary of State's listing.

The Watauga Democrat says he is a resident of Alexander County. "Van Keith Gardner" is indeed registered in Alexander Co. (which IS in the 5th District) at a Hickory address -- 185 Sienna Drive -- which also happens to be the registered office address for Admin on Call, Inc.

He registered to vote in Alexander County just last November 18.

Admin on Call, Inc. does not appear to have a website. It is listed on the national citysearch for Hickory as offering "legal services." The Watauga Democrat says it's a "medical practice management firm," which maybe involves "legal services." We searched several variations of the Gardner name on both the North Carolina Bar site and the NC medical registry and could not find him listed as either an attorney or a medical professional.

He has no web presence that we can locate, and other than mailing a letter to one of the addresses listed on the Secretary of State's site, we don't know how to wish him well in his quest to unseat Virginia Foxx.

Labels: Keith Gardner, Virginia Foxx

This piece on GoBlueRidge about the candidacy of William Byrd for sheriff of Watauga County kind of misses the drama. Byrd was supposed to be the Watauga GOP's candidate, but he missed the deadline for changing his party registration from "Unaffiliated" to "Republican," another slip-up of the Foxx-family dominated Republican Party of Watauga. So Byrd is trying to enter the race via petition as an "Independent," which in this case really means too-late-to-the-Party Republican.

In other local election news, the twice-cooked David Blust apparently sez he'll file by Friday (the last day of filing) to run for County Commissioner against Democratic candidate Lowell Thomas, if no other Republican steps forward for District 4. In baseball, this is called a pop-up sacrifice fly. In politics, a losing campaign.

The local GOP apparently has found no viable candidates for either District 4 or Dist. 2, where incumbent Democratic Commissioner Billy Ralph Winkler is running for reelection.

After Watauga Republicans failed to field a single commissioner candidate in 2008, most observers thought that the local GOP, under the iron fist of the Foxxes, would have their ducklings in a row this year. So far, their duckies don't look all that sea-worthy.

Labels: Aaron Whitener, David Blust, Lowell Thomas, Virginia Foxx, William Byrd, William R. Winkler III

At the moment, that's all we know about Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's Republican primary opponent. Except that he filed last Friday in Raleigh. Hickory's in the 10th; Foxx represents the 5th. Go figure.

For one brief moment there, we thought that maybe this Keith Gardner running against Foxx is also this Keith Gardner, who describes himself as anti-tax, "socially liberal," and "poly-dogmatic."

Hey! Whatever turns you on.

Labels: Keith Gardner, Virginia Foxx

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's indignant letter in yesterday's Watauga Democrat newspaper is classic Foxx: ignore what I've always said and listen only to my election-year pandering. Everyone who has followed Madam Foxx for a nano-second knows she's hostile to Social Security, and I should hope that someone will dig out those past statements. (I would, but I'm trying to skin a different skunk today and just don't have the time.)

Suddenly (if we're to believe her letter in the Watauga Democrat, which we don't), she's the great champion of Social Security. Buffalo dust!

Which reminds us of how she's pulled this kind of stunt in the past. For example, the great Dell computer corporate welfare gambit of 2004-2005. Foxx was serving in the NC Senate when it voted in November 2004 to grant millions of $$ in tax breaks, etc. to the corporation to set up a plant in Forsyth County. But Foxx, who has always publicly said she opposes corporate raids on the taxpayer and who never misses a vote, managed to miss the vote on the Dell giveaway.

Scott Sexton, the Winston-Salem Journal columnist, couldn't dodge the irony of then encountering Foxx's broadly smiling face sitting on the stage when Dell subsequently hosted a tour of the new Forsyth plant. Foxx posed for pictures of herself with Dell's founder, Michael Dell (the picture above).

Sexton made a point of asking her if she'd changed her position on corporate welfare, and you can read how she dodged and bobbed and weaved, trying to get out of the trap she'd laid for herself.

She's doing the same exact thing in yesterday's Watauga Democrat.

Oh yeah, and how did that Dell deal work out for the taxpayers of North Carolina?

Labels: corporate welfare, Dell Corporation, Virginia Foxx

Taken at the Iredell County Republican gathering at which the Madam said serving in Congress was "excruciating."

Labels: Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx

Who knew that Congresswoman Virginia Foxx was in such pain in Washington? We knew that we were in pain for having her in Washington, but the terrible water-boarding of Virginia Foxx had completely escaped us.

There she was last night telling Iredell County Republicans about her great tribulations in Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac, that these past few years, since the voters ran her party out of power, have been "excruciating." Why, she can hardly get any attention at all and has to resort to attacking dead gay boys in Wyoming to get anyone to even look her way!

Plus this: "If we don't take this country back from the leftists who are running it now, we will lose our country .... We're talking about four years."

Set your clocks.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx once again says one thing, does another.

The Congresswoman's attack on President George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" (Winston-Salem Journal, Jan. 31), amounts to damage control. She recently stood on the House floor and declared that the federal government "should not be funding education." Period.

Her radical and blanket condemnation of all federal help for education -- brick and mortar projects, educational materials, funding for teachers and teacher aides -- may be wholly typical of the shoot-from-the-mouth "style" we've come to expect from Congresswoman Foxx. But it quickly became enough of a liability for her that she felt compelled to write one of her "what I meant to say" explanations and have it published in the Winston-Salem Journal.

What she meant to say, evidently, was that "No Child Left Behind" is highly unpopular and is a symbol of good government intentions gone awry. We can't disagree.

But in writing those words, Foxx was disagreeing with herself. When President George W. Bush came to Waldo C. Falkener Elementary School in Greensboro in October 2006 to praise the local accomplishments of his "No Child Left Behind" federal program, Congresswoman Foxx stood with him for the photo ops and even issued this press statement: "I was pleased to join President Bush today as he highlighted the successes of the No Child Left Behind Act."

Congresswoman Foxx went on:

"The first year that Waldo C. Falkener was tested under the NCLB the scores were low and the school had fallen short of the standards for progress. Falkener Elementary took a number of steps to improve results by using federal funding to pay for new laboratories, teacher collaboration, research and professional development as well as tougher accountability measures. They increased their focus on results and implemented a Saturday Academy for students in need of extra assistance. Through these efforts Falkener Elementary has met NCLB standards for three years in a row, exemplifying the progress and the success of the program."

When currying favor with President Bush, federal assistance to education was A-okay with her. With Democrats now in power, Congresswoman Foxx has rediscovered her deep "constitutional" opposition to funding education.

Ms. Foxx also forgets to tell her constituents that for every dollar North Carolina sends to Washington, we get back $1.08. If the Congresswoman succeeds in her mission to stop all Federal dollars coming into our state for education, that means a major tax increase for the working men and women of our state.

Labels: George W. Bush, Virginia Foxx

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Billy Kennedy for Congress website

Billy Kennedy Launches Campaign for Congress

Billy Kennedy, a Watauga County talk radio host and community leader, will formally announce his candidacy on February 8 for the U.S. House of Representatives, 5th District of North Carolina. The "Billy Kennedy Caravan" will stretch from Boone to Raleigh that day, with stops in Wilkesboro and Winston-Salem.

Complete schedule follows below.

Billy Kennedy is a well known Friday morning personality on WATA-AM 1450 "High Country Radio," where he has co-hosted "Watauga Talks" for several years. Kennedy has turned the "Watauga Talks" spotlight onto the work of non-profits, charitable organizations and community-building efforts. He regularly interviews both elected officials and candidates running for office. Kennedy is known for his willingness to confront tough issues and ask hard questions.

Kennedy is a member of the state executive committee of the North Carolina Democratic Party and also serves on the executive committee of the Watauga County Democratic Party and as chair of the Beaver Dam precinct.

In addition to his political interests and involvement in the community, Kennedy is a farmer, carpenter, and furniture maker. He is married and the father of three children, the youngest of whom is graduating from Watauga High School this year.

"My father was a Presbyterian minister, an educator and public servant. Growing up, my parents taught me that serving others is important," Kennedy said. His father, Will Kennedy, was elected Mayor of Black Mountain, N.C., late in life and was still serving as mayor when he passed away in 2006.

"This congressional race is a calling for me," Kennedy said. "I believe we must replace the culture of corruption in Washington with a renewed culture of service."

"I chose to earn a living with my hands, and I can see how average people have been treated recently. Certainly not like bankers or like members of Congress," Kennedy said. "It's time we put working people back in Washington."

Kennedy believes Washington is out of touch with working peoples' lives and values. "My father always taught me to stand up for what was right and fair," says Kennedy. "I see very little of what is right and fair on either side of the aisle in Washington."

"Politicians will say anything to get elected," says Kennedy. "But once they're in Washington, they spend their time taking money from lobbyists and handing out taxpayer money to corporate interests. Enough is enough. Everyday Americans need someone in Washington to put an end to the greed. I will listen to the working people of western North Carolina, and I want them know I'm on their side."

Billy is married to Rebecca ("Becka") Saunders. They have three children: Amber Grace; Jessica; and "Willis."

###


SCHEDULE FOR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2010

9:00 a.m. -- Billy Kennedy arrives at the Watauga County Courthouse Board of Elections, 842 W. King Street, Suite 6, Boone, NC for certification to file for office. Supporters and press invited. Brief remarks by the candidate

10:00 a.m. -- Billy Kennedy Caravan departs for Wilkes County

10:45 a.m. -- Billy Kennedy arrives at the Wilkes County Heritage Museum, 100 E. Main St., Wilkesboro, NC. Supporters and press invited. Remarks by the candidate

11:30 a.m. -- Billy Kennedy Caravan departs for Winston-Salem

12:30 p.m. -- Billy Kennedy arrives at the Forsyth County Democratic Party headquarters, 1128 Burke St., Winston-Salem. Supporters and press invited. Remarks by the candidate. Luncheon refreshments available

1:30 p.m. -- Billy Kennedy Caravan departs for Raleigh

4:00 p.m. -- Billy Kennedy arrives at the North Carolina Board of Elections, 506 North Harrington Street, Raleigh, NC and files to run for Congress representing the 5th District of North Carolina. Press invited

Labels: Billy Kennedy, Virginia Foxx

The Blue Ridge Parkway is indisputably a major economic engine for the 5th Congressional District of North Carolina, as well as elsewhere. Almost 20 million visitors come every year and drive its two-lane blacktop and buy fuel, food, lodging, and the geegaws that gladden the tourist heart, generating almost $2.3 billion in revenue annually in North Carolina and Virginia.

Even conservative Republican Senator Dick Burr realizes its economic importance for his state. Burr has signed on as cosponsor with Sen. Kay Hagan of a 75th Parkway anniversary bill which would authorize the preservation (by purchase) of up to 50,000 acres of land along the Parkway route. Heath Shuler (NC-11) is a key sponsor of the House version of this bill.

Conspicuously missing from the House bill's list of co-sponsors are two who actually represent counties through which the Parkway passes ... Patrick McHenry (NC-10) and Virginia Foxx (NC-5).

Foxx's explanation is all rigid conservative ideology. She wouldn't spend a dime, not even to help her own constituents.

The Winston-Salem Journal scolds her in an editorial this a.m.: "...we can't afford to get behind on preserving the parkway. The recession is lifting, and resort property prices will soon resume their steady climb. We should have money for land ready so that orderly development can be balanced with preservation -- our responsibility to future generations."

Labels: Blue Ridge Parkway, Health Shuler, Kay Hagan, Patrick McHenry, Richard Burr, Virginia Foxx

Let's review, shall we?

When Republican Minority Leader John Boehner announced to his Republican House troops on January 20th that President Barack Obama had accepted an invitation to appear before Republican members of Congress during their Baltimore retreat this past week, Madam Virginia Foxx was nonplussed (that's Latin for "pissed off"):

North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx asked Boehner whose idea it was and was told it was "the leadership." When Foxx pressed him on precisely who among the leadership came up with the idea, Boehner demurred.

If you haven't seen the now widely viewed video of President Obama's appearance before the Republican Conference, it's definitely what you should watch (it's available practically everywhere, but here's a quick link). Just how amazing was it? Well, for a true gauge, consider that Fox News, CNN, and MS-NBC all covered it live, but Fox broke away 20 minutes in. Mustn't let Fox viewers see Obama putting one over on the Republican Caucus!)

Watching Obama handle the brat-boys of the Republican caucus made me proud of him again, an emotion I haven't felt in, well, months. Doesn't mean all is forgiven for the way he's mishandled health-insurance reform and a bunch of other stuff. Just means I felt better about him for approximately one hour and 20 minutes. (And, incidentally, we learned that it was that deeply dim Mike Pence of Indiana, chair of the Republican Conference, who was responsible for the Obama invitation, and after what happened on Friday, we suspect Mr. Pence's powers for invitin' might be rescinded.)

Maureen Dowd in today's NYTimes said that the "newly warmblooded Barack Obama" got his groove back in the Republican lion's den: "He may lapse back into his Camus coma at any moment. But on Friday he dropped the diffident debutante act and offered, as he did at the State of the Union, some welcome gumption."

(Dowd has something of "a thing" for Albert Camus, the French philosopher of the absurd. According to Dowd, Camus understood the "eternal frustration of moral order in human affairs." Whatever.)

Anyway, enter Madam Virginia Foxx, who was very much present in that hotel room in Baltimore when the President mowed down every Republican bright-boy who attempted to trip him up or embarrass him. And she tweeted about it:

Pres gave us another lecture. Our guys asked great questions. Need independent fact checker for his comments. Got autograph 11:13 AM Jan 29th from txt

Got autograph?

The man may be a socialist trying to rob Americans of their liberty, but goddamn it, he's a celebrity too, and Madam Foxx turned into a teeny bopper in bobbie sox and a poodle skirt just that rapidly.

Is there any Congressperson more pathetic than this woman?

Labels: Barack Obama, Virginia Foxx

The number of people living in poverty has jumped by nearly 2,600,000 to 39,800,000, the highest number since 1960. Check!

The number of children who live in poverty increased by 744,000 to 14,000,000. Check!

According to a resolution passed in the U.S. House on Wednesday of this week, "The next Census report on poverty will likely illustrate higher levels of poverty as the report will reflect data from 2009, a year in which the economy experienced substantial job loss and historic levels of long-term unemployment, leading some experts to project that the overall poverty rate may increase by 1.5 percentage points and the percentage of children living in poverty may increase by 6 percentage points in the next report."

Madam Virginia Foxx was one of only 18 in the U.S. House to vote against the resolution. Why? Take your pick:

a. The resolution was introduced by a Democrat, and she doesn't vote for anything with Democratic cooties

b. She's following Zippy the Pinhead's New Testament, the one that says, "Eff the poor, and do not feed the hungry, because it just encourages them to breed"

c. She despises the poor and the hungry because she's full of self-loathing. Anyone who brags about how poor she was growing up, and votes like this on a harmless resolution, is possessed of something dark and twisted and demon-inspired.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

That monument to bad judgment, Karl Rove, was in Raleigh yesterday raising money for Sen. Dick Burr, who apparently needs help in the worst way.

Rove gave an interview to the News&Observer in which he opined that Republicans need "to address the kitchen-table issues that people talk about at home that affect their lives: jobs, the economy, health care, access of their children to college, how to pay for college, quality of life, the environment."

Look at that laundry list closely. When have the Republicans offered any substantive help on any of those topics? Why, Madam Virginia Foxx alone is a study in NOT helping. She votes against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, she votes against raising the minimum wage, she votes against extending unemployment benefits, she votes against college loans, hell, she votes against the School Lunch program! And "the environment"? Don't make us laugh out loud and choke on our tongues!

So we don't know which Republican Party Karl Rove is talking about, but it isn't the one currently sending Madam Virginia Foxx to Congress.

Labels: Karl Rove, Republican "brand", Richard Burr, Virginia Foxx

Thank Gawd SCOTUS came to the rescue of corporate America! In re Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission the all-powerful Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates and a 2003 decision that upheld the part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions.

Word is that Congresswoman Virginia Foxx praised this SCOTUS decision in Rural Hall yesterday, saying it was a freedom of speech issue. Makes perfect bent sense. Freedom of speech is now a commodity open for bids. What Congress person would be such a dope as to vote against the interests of the corporations ... big banks, big insurance, big drug companies, big everything under the sun, when those Big Boys can buy unlimited TV time to trash your ass?

Incidentally, Foxx's attempt to co-opt the tea party movement in Rural Hall yesterday did not exactly bring out the masses. The meeting was held in a building at the end of a dead-end road, as if the purpose of holding the meeting was to discourage as many people getting there as possible. That creepy secrecy aside, Foxx is trying to ride a tiger that could just as easily turn and devour her.

The attempt of the Republican Party to take over the tea party movement for their own benefit is both clumsy and dangerous. The National Tea Party convention, now scheduled for Feb. 4-6 at a swanky Nashville venue, has been denounced as both a high-dollar event being put on for profit and an attempt by the National Republican Party to grab the anti-government movement for themselves. Said disgusted tea-partier Kevin Smith,

"What began as cries for true liberty and a public showing of frustration with the big government policies of both Democrats and Republicans has now been co-opted by mainstream Republican demagogues determined to use this as their 2010 election platform."

That explains perfectly Madam Foxx's attendance yesterday in Rural Hall.

Labels: corporate power, teabag protest, Virginia Foxx

Scott Keadle, a dentist and first-term Iredell County Commissioner, is the other major Republican challenger to incumbent Republican Congressman Patty McHenry (at least, so far as we've heard).

Keadle gave an interview to Larry Clark in the Hickory Daily Record (published this a.m.), and he's positioning himself as critical of both major parties:

"Neither [Democrats nor Republicans] did anything about the budget. Neither group did anything to stop subprime lending that wrecked banking and hurt the economy. Neither party has done anything about illegal immigration. And neither one has lived up to the ethical and moral standards of the people. They're a perpetual embarrassment. All I've heard is talk, no matter which party is in control."

The issue is McHenry's incumbency: "I'm tired of hearing bad ideas from Democrats and excuses from Republicans. We don't need career politicians who care more about themselves than the people they are supposed to serve."

If incumbency is a negative for Patrick McHenry, it's also a negative for Virginia Foxx. A partisan hack who loves the limelight thrown off by the likes of Michele Bachmann ain't no bargain for the unemployed and uninsured people of the 5th District. What Keadle says about McHenry applies just as much to our own Bobblehead.

Labels: Michelle Bachmann, Patrick McHenry, Scott Keadle, Virginia Foxx

Jeffrey Elmore, a North Wilkesboro town commissioner, has announced that he'll enter the Republican primary in May to take on incumbent Democratic state Senator Steve Goss.

Elmore comes in to the race a couple of months behind Dan Soucek. That primary will bear watching.

Soucek has been groomed for this race by Virginia Foxx, but apparently Mr. Elmore didn't get that memo.

Labels: Dan Soucek, Jeffrey Elmore, Steve Goss, Virginia Foxx

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx draws a Glenn-Beck-inspired challenger on the right, and the next thing you know, Virginia Foxx is planning on showing up at a Forsyth County "meetup" of the Glenn-Beck-inspired "912 group."

That's called cause and effect.

Anyone got an iPhone to go record her remarks in Rural Hall? Our guess is that V. Foxx is going to be moving even farther right than she already is, which means she may fall off the map of the known world. She will, however, want to keep those extreme opinions secret from the general public, or more specifically from moderate Republicans and independent voters in Forsyth county and elsewhere.

This a.m. the NYTimes has a long article up about the tea-party movement -- many diverse fringe and splinter groups, including Glenn Beck's 912 org and the guys who show up at presidential appearances packing guns. Some of that movement's savvier leaders are moving to take over the Republican Party from the precinct level up. We think this is a splendid idea. If they did that in Watauga County, however, they'd be essentially throwing out Virginia Foxx, since she runs the local party through her paid staff member who is also chair. We forget his name.

Labels: Aaron Whitener, Republican "brand", teabag protest, Virginia Foxx

Republican political analyst John Davis sez that North Carolina business interests have shied away from recent Republican politicians because most business-oriented voters do not regard a "preoccupation with a right-wing religious and/or socially conservative agenda" as the main business of government, let alone the main business of business.

Jack Betts quotes Davis:

If I am out of work, living on unemployment, can't afford health insurance, can't afford to keep my kids in college, can't afford to buy my family Christmas gifts ... don't come to my door asking for my vote based on your position on abortion. If my wife is sick and I can't afford to take her to a doctor, and my daughter lost her job and I can't afford to help her pay her rent ... don't come to my door asking for my vote based on your position on same-sex marriage.

In the photograph here reproduced, that's Congresswoman Virginia Foxx endorsing Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Renato Calabria in 2005. He evidently thought Foxx was good for his business.

Labels: John Davis, Republican "brand", Virginia Foxx

Virginia Foxx is one of 30-some Republican members of Congress who are sticking their noses into governmental decisions in the District of Columbia. Foxx, little Patty McHenry, and Walter Jones from N.C., along with 36 others, have signed a friend-of-the-court brief demanding a voter referendum on gay marriage.

The Foxx loves her some WEDGE issues, don't she now?

The D.C. City Council recently voted overwhelmingly to allow same-sex marriage. A local church leader, Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church, sued in D.C. Superior Court to force a referendum, which most people figger would fail, especially once the fundies and other right-wing fringe groups saturated the atmosphere with smears, fears, and queers.

Madam Foxx, who once upon a time was a good deal more accommodating to gay Americans, having supported decades ago the right of gay couples to adopt children, ought to be ashamed of herself now, but isn't, nor is she embarrassed to be pursuing this kind of politics.

Beware the person who can't be embarrassed.

Labels: gay marriage, homophobia, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Walter Jones

Though we've ground our teeth down to nubs over President Obama's lack of real leadership and Rahm Emanuel's backroom deal-making and Congressional Democrats' wussiness, we have not bought into the cable news chatter that 2010 will put Republicans back in charge of everything legislative, including the state of North Carolina. Finally, we find another NC analyst who seems to agree with us, Gary Pearce:

So what could keep 2010 from being a Republican year? The answer: Republicans....

Republicans' stridency, negativity and hypocrisy today stun me. But they don't bother me. I hope they keep it up. It's the Democrats' best hope.

We doubt seriously that Mr. Pearce had Virginia Foxx specifically in mind when he wrote those sentences, but she certainly comes to mind when we read them.

Labels: Gary Pearce, Republican "brand", Virginia Foxx

Scott Sexton's column in today's Winston-Salem Journal is about rumors of a Republican primary challenger against Congresswoman Virginia Foxx.

One of those rumors has centered on former Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith (pictured left), whose retirement last November some 11 months before the end of his elected term (after 19 years in the job) apparently fueled some speculation that he was getting ready to run for some office up the food chain. According to Sexton's column, quoting a well-connected Forsyth County Republican under condition of anonymity, "Tom's got the name recognition, and the Rolodex to pull it off."

The other potential primary challenger is Donny Lambeth, president of Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and the chairman of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board. When asked about it, Lambeth laughed: "I heard that rumor, too," he said. "There was a Web site in Watauga County that had my picture in it. But the rumor is incorrect. I called Virginia as soon as I heard to tell her it wasn't true. The school board is good for me."

Wonder what web site in Watauga had his picture? That's almost as funny as his nervous, fumbling call to The Madam once the rumor surfaced: "Please please please don't turn your evil eye in my direction!"

Two observations to make about this: (1) At least there's widespread acknowledgement among 5th District Republicans that they need to do something about this Foxx, who is an embarrassment to the whole state and bad for business, though it appears unlikely that any of these potential candidates have the balls to challenge her; and (2) the greatest current myth about Foxx is that she's good at "constituent services." Sexton mentions it twice in his short column. The fact is that she checks your party affiliation before responding to requests, and she absolutely, positively will not meet personally with anyone who does not genuflect deeply and kiss her ass ... or give her cash. It's an open secret (from members of her own staff and others close to her) that she's increasingly "phoning it in" and that she has an open terror of actual interaction with voters. Her personal meanness and irrationality are best kept under close wraps.

Labels: Donny Lambeth, Tom Keith, Virginia Foxx

A double-whammy of dumb lies from Congresswoman Virginia Foxx this week:

1. On Tuesday, Foxx did an on-air interview with right-wing talk radio host Bill LuMaye in which she essentially bragged about being a gold-plated bee-yotch ("I wouldn't last five minutes in the State Department"), declared (once again) that the Federal government doesn't "need to be in health care. We don't need to be in education," and claimed that President Obama is colluding with terrorists: "All the promises he's kept have endangered our lives."

2. Mailed at our expense another glossy mailer to every household in the 5th District in which she said she was for giving Americans access to the same health insurance plans that she enjoys as a member of Congress, among other liberal-sounding talking points. Flip the mailer over and you see a handy chart for comparing "the Majority's Health Care Plan" and "the Minority's" competing plan (if a total public relations mirage could be construed as "a plan"), with all the "NO" boxes checked for the Majority's plan and all the "YES" boxes checked for the Minority's.

She's a pip.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

"Very distressed"
If not for this 140-character limit on Twitter updates, I would have said "I'm massively full of my adopted Baptist disgust, mixed with a healthy dose of true Catholic fascination with hell fire and the innovations of the Inquisition." But "very distressed" will have to do, unless you think it's a trifle limp-wristed. Maybe "sick on my stomach" would be better? Or "Puking up righteous bile"?

"about Obama"
There. I said his name. Are you satisfied? But notice the subtle dis. No first name. Ain't that cool? And I acknowledged no title for him. No "President." Hell no. Eff Obama.

"treating terrorist as criminal."
Damn this Twitter character limit! What I mean is, Obama (eff Obama) wants to put terrorist(s) behind iron bars instead of standing him (them) up against a wall and blowing their brains all over the stucco, or burning them in baths of phosphorus, or ... or ... see "the innovations of the Inquisition" above, or see for reference any bloody-minded echo of our heritage.

"Another example of Dems 'being soft on crime' "
Because it's not JUST that Obama (eff Obama) is black and Muslim and probably a foreigner with a faked Honolulu birth certificate. He's a Dem. Damn the Dems. Dem bones, Dem bones, Dem dry bones! Dem bones ain't gonna rise again! And thank Gawd for ancient slogans, like "soft on crime." That one comes from back when we used it ALWAYS to refer to black people, especially when they were agitating and marching in the streets for their so-called "rights." Animals! Our blessed forefathers knew how to deal, how to use the fire and the noose and the meat cleaver. Obama is a pussy. End of story.

"but now terrorists."
Got the "s" on there this time! America, are you paying attention? Booga, booga, booga ... TERRORISTS! The TERRORISTS are coming to get you! Hear that? It's TERRORISTS creeping up on you, and all Obama (eff Obama) and the effing Dems want to do is treat them as criminal. Not like us Republicans. We want to treat them the way you treated baby kittens when you were a poor sadistic kid with no social skills and what they called "lack of emotional connection" and with too much time on your hands. We want to open up a fountain of cruelty, those feelings you're sooo repressing right now. And we can do it, we believe, when we scream in your face, "TERRORISTS!"

Your believe-it-or-not reference to source.

Labels: Republican "brand", Virginia Foxx

Rep. Virginia Foxx's vote against the "Jobs for Main Street Act" was her last official act before leaving Washington to return to Watauga County for Christmas. It was more than just a vote against seeing President Obama succeed in any measure in turning around the Bush economic downtown. It was a vote against the people of her own district.

The bill in question, which passed the House without a single Republican vote, included money to extend unemployment benefits another six months, aid to help local communities retain teachers and firefighters, and money for public works projects.

Madam Foxx is much more dedicated to saying "NO!" to anything the Obama administration proposes for getting us out of the economic trainwreck that Bush caused than she is to helping her own constituents, and she actively depends on a non-existent or compliant news network in the 5th District to get away with it.

Few people seem to know how she votes in Washington or how those votes hurt our local communities.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Brad Smith, the Wilkes County disaffected Republican who is trying to gather some 17,000 signatures on a petition to get himself on the fall ballot as an independent candidate opposing Madam Virginia Foxx, made the front page of the Winston-Salem Journal today. He has a website and a page that allows you to print a copy of his petition specific for your county.

Congresswoman Foxx was unavailable for comment.

Holding her breath and hoping Mr. Smith goes away?

Labels: Brad Smith, Virginia Foxx

The effing Senate Democrats, at the behest of effing Rahm Emanuel, are producing an effing DISASTER of a so-called reform of health insurance, while making effing Joe Lieberman the Supreme Dictator of its contents, which puts us in the effing awkward position of having to applaud the inevitable NO vote that effing Madam Virginia Foxx will cast against whatever piece of shit finally emerges from the combination of the House and Senate bills, because, probably, the effing House Democrats will capitulate too.

Labels: health care, Joe Lieberman, Rahm Emanuel, Senate Democrats, Virginia Foxx

Talking Points Memo picks up on some spilled acid from Madam Foxx's recent interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. Democrats have no ideas, sez she, so they talk about character, including, we assume, hers.

Okay. We'll go for that.

Her behavior at the buffet line of life reveals a good deal about character: "All for me, none for you."

That attitude of shoveling everything that's not nailed down into her over-sized pockets and purse and big cloth shoulder bag -- while sneering at everyone else's prospects of getting just a taste from the food bar -- extends itself to her attitude toward health insurance reform: She's got hers, both Medicare and a very generous government health-care plan. But none for you, suckas!

Her line: "There are no Americans who don't have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare" (July 24, 2009, in a Capitol Hill press conference).

The woman has been on the government payroll -- local, state, federal -- most of her grown-up life and has not been shy at taking advantage. One might say that guv'mint has been veryvery good to her. Meanwhile, she lectures everyone else sternly: "Getting gouged by predatory credit card interest rates? It's your own fault. Get a different credit card!"

Or this, one of my all-time favorite Foxx quotes: "The worst thing we can do is to get government involved in solving problems" (September 16, 2003, in the NC state Senate's special session on medical malpractice lawsuit reform). That's Foxx in a nutshell: All for me, none for you.

Sez she, "Don't have health insurance, you lazy bum! Go to the Emergency Room, and maybe they'll take care of you. Or put out a collection jar at Smoky Mountain Barbecue. Maybe you'll raise the half-million in $$ you'll need for treatment, a nickel or dime at a time."

That's character, Virginia Foxx-style.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Member of Congress from North Carolina. She has a minimum net worth of $2.4 million. Minimum.

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich [woman] shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich [woman] to enter into the kingdom of God." (Matt. 19:23-24)

Labels: Virginia Foxx

There is some Forsyth County talk that Virginia Foxx might get a Republican primary challenger in one Donny Lambeth, currently president and chief operating officer of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and chair of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education.

Lambeth, a former Democrat, would be a moderate, sane antidote to Madam Foxx's irrational psycho manifestation of poisonous partisanship. In other words, he'd have a snowball's chance of beating her.

But the actual goal of a Lambeth run against Foxx in 2010 would be preparing himself for a 2012 race for what Forsyth County activists hope will be the redistricting result of the 2010 Census, the carving out of a new district for Winston-Salem which would shove Foxx off onto the rest of us while Tobacco Central takes a more rational course into the future.

Good luck with that agenda.

Labels: Donny Lambeth, Virginia Foxx

Apparently, Virginia Foxx has officially become part of the "Washington establishment," as a Glenn-Beck-inspired independent candidate is gathering petition signatures to get himself on the fall 2010 ballot to oppose her. Brad Smith is a Wilkes County construction supervisor for W.A. Lankford metal buildings. He's a former lifelong Republican disillusioned with his party's leaders.

Where can I sign that petition?

Labels: Brad Smith, Virginia Foxx

Guest Blogger: Karl Campbell

Last week, while commenting on a bill to designate a river "wild and scenic," Representative Foxx waded into historical waters beyond her depth. While trying to make a valid historical point that Republicans deserve credit for beginning some good environmental programs (and she is right, if you go back 40 years to the Nixon administration), Foxx made one of the most ridiculous comments of her political career:

FOXX: ...and actually the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this, in this country, uh, just as we were the people who passed the Civil Right bills back in the '60s, without very much help from our colleagues across the aisle. They love to engage in revisionist history.

Revisionist history? No serious scholar would agree with Foxx's statement. President Kennedy, who proposed the first significant civil rights act, and President Johnson, who passed both that act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, were Democrats. Almost all the African-Americans who took the beatings in Birmingham and Selma either were Democrats or became Democrats soon thereafter. Here in North Carolina, and across the country, many white Democrats who opposed civil rights legislation left the party and joined the new Republican coalition that increasingly belittled the African American struggle for freedom. Jesse Helms railed against these courageous people in his editorials on WRAL (Foxx also misspoke while trying to defend Helms a few minutes later).

Representative Foxx embarrassed herself by trying to recast history and wield it as a political weapon. Pundits and politicians on cable news and liberal blogs have rightfully attacked her for her silly blunder.

But there is more to this story than most Democrats would like to admit. Liberals would do well to give the topic of politics and civil rights more careful attention. There is a hidden truth behind the headlines.

For several years now some shrewd Republican leaders have played the civil rights history card during debates about the GOP's record on race. Unlike Foxx's heavy handed oversimplification, they correctly point out that without Republican support, led by Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois, civil rights bills would never have become law. For instance, look carefully at the following numbers about the actual voting rights bill that passed both chambers in 1965 before the final conference bill:

Senate: 77-19
• Democrats: 47-17 (73%-27%)
• Republicans: 30-2 (94%-6%)

House: 333-85
• Democrats: 221-61 (78%-22%)
• Republicans: 112-24 (82%-18%)

Note that while there were more actual Democratic votes, the percentage of support was higher among Republicans. Why? The reason is because Southern Democrats -- including North Carolina Senators Ervin and Jordan -- opposed civil rights. Do these numbers mean that Republicans were more supportive of civil rights than Democrats? Of course they don't. A careful reading of the history of civil rights legislation shows that a COALITION of Democrats and Republicans made these important gains in racial justice possible.

So Democrats, be warned. Just as Foxx inaccurately claimed that it was Republicans "who passed the Civil Right bills back in the '60's without very much help from our colleagues across the aisle," it would be wrong for Democrats to oversimplify in the other direction and claim that they alone were the party of civil rights.

History is messier than many politicians would like it to be.

The real irony here is that Foxx has accidentally endorsed a few things she is adamantly against -- like bipartisanship and moderation. When it really mattered, when politicians on both sides of the aisle came face to face with a real turning point in American history, moderate Republicans followed the brave leadership of Senator Dirksen and did the right thing for the country.

Maybe Virginia Foxx should re-read her history and follow her Republican forbearers' example.

Karl Campbell is an associate professor of history at ASU and is the author of "Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers."

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Yesterday's edition of the Watauga Democrat included a guest column written by Baptist minister Herb Hash under the aegis of the Watauga County Democratic Party. The editor of the paper included an illuminating headnote to Rev. Hash's column, as follows:

A couple of years ago, the Watauga County Democratic and Republican parties agreed to submit a monthly column in which their parties positions on the issues of the day would be discussed.

This column published in several editions and was received well by readers.

Over the past few months, the local Republican Party, for unexplained reasons, has ceased to submit any columns.

Since this concept will only work if both parties participate, this column submitted by the Watauga Democratic Party will be the last in this series...." [No link available. These occasional columns have never been included in the Watauga Democrat's on-line edition, but the Hash column can now be read here.]

What the editor did not mention was that (1) early in 2009, at the Republican County Convention, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx and her surrogates took over control of the county party and ran off the man who had been writing most of their newspaper columns. And (2) the last column submitted by Aaron Whitener, the Foxx-appointed chair of the party and Foxx’s own employee, was an attack on gays signed by a wholly fictitious person, a breach of ethics that the newspaper editor vigorously questioned at the time and about which Aaron Whitener remained guiltily silent and unresponsive.

Despite all that creepy behavior, the Aaron Whitener version of the Watauga County Republican Party now manages nevertheless to win a tactical victory. That is to say, by failing to participate in the local paper’s attempt to offer contrasting views, or by failing to participate honestly in that exchange of views, the Foxx/Whitener Republican Party manages to silence everyone.

Labels: Aaron Whitener, Hugh Sturgill, Virginia Foxx, Watauga County Republican Party

Let's review, shall we?

1. May 13, 2009: The U.S. House passes (resoundingly) sweeping credit card reform legislation aimed at limiting abusive and deceptive credit card practices, like raising rates on people who pay their minimums on time. The law (signed by President Obama) mandates February 2010 for implementation. Most House Republicans vote for the measure, but not Virginia Foxx. She's one of 64 Republican House members who vote against the bill.

2. Between May 13 and now: Credit card companies start jacking up their interest rates and fees in advance of the law's taking effect. That's called "In your face, Congress!"

3. November 4, 2009: Congress responds to the behavior by voting to move up the deadline for implementation to December 1 of this year. The Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009 passes the House 331 to 92, and if you're guessing that -- yep! -- Virginia Foxx voted against this too, you'd be right. Plus she said this on the floor of the House: She called the bill unnecessary and said "people who take out credit cards don't have a gun to their head. If you don't like the rate, get another credit card."

Ah, that milk of human kindness! Are you flashing on "Let them eat cake," like I am?

Foxx's attitude, combined with the practices of the credit card companies, earned The Madam another blistering editorial in the Charlotte Observer.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

This one in today's Winston-Salem Journal.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Madam Virginia Foxx stood on the west front of the Capitol yesterday, shucking and grinning as one of Michelle Bachmann's backup singers, basking in the glow of some 5,000 anti-abortionists and tea partiers bused in by Americans for the Prosperous to shut down the government and kill health-insurance reform. Many of the demonstrators were covered in fake blood and carried mangled dolls, representing aborted fetuses, as someone else dressed as the Grim Reaper mimicked leading them all to hell. Other demonstrators chanted "Weasel Queen," their favored nickname for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In Madam Foxx's line of sight were a number of protestor signs: President Obama in white coat, his face painted to look like the Joker; "Stop Obamunism"; "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" [sic], accusing Obama of being part of a Jewish plot to introduce the antichrist; and a pair of 5-by-8 foot banners proclaiming "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945." Both banners showed close-up photographs of Holocaust victims, many of them children.

Those huge Nazi death-camp signs were the visual manifestation of what The Madam had already said on the floor of the U.S. House this past Monday.

Anyone who watched any of this bizarre Michelle Bachmann rally yesterday ("Taking the GOP Off the Cliff") could not miss Madam Foxx and her helmet of white crazy-lady hair. While others ranted at the microphone, she was always nearby, the perfect marionette, though for all her mimicking of great pleasure at being there in the company of so many other political whores, she looked as nervous and as pained as someone secretly passing gas in an elevator.

When her turn came at the microphone, she bellowed, "This Congress is on a collision course with the principles of freedom and liberty that our Founding Fathers bled and died for. We will not be silenced. We will kill this bill."

Well, they ARE clearly the Party of Death.

Labels: health care, Michelle Bachmann, Republican "brand", Virginia Foxx

The Charlotte Observer today features a blistering editorial about Madam Foxx, who is "more than just mildly embarrassing for North Carolina." She's positively "find-an-island-to-ship-her-to embarrassing." And then this small shiv directed at you and me: "how-can-voters-keep-electing-her embarrassing .... Her words and actions should scare voters in her 5th District, which stretches from the Piedmont to the mountains. In 2010, they should take that fear to the polls."

Maybe someone from Watauga would like to post a comment below that editorial: "Foxx is unable-to-carry-her-home-county-in-the-last-two-elections embarrassing."

WE know all about her "stoopid is as stoopid does" antics in Watauga. It's the other 11 or 12 counties in the 5th District that apparently approve of being representated by her.

Labels: Virginia Foxx

Virginia Foxx took over the Watauga GOP last spring, installing her paid employee, Aaron Whitener, as chair and running off the Republican worker bees who didn't agree with her.

The Republicans recruited to run in the Boone municipal elections today (or not recruited, as the case may be) were completely shut out in the election (see results down-column).

But not, as it turns out, without the following stroke of tactical brilliance on the part of the Foxx-paid party leadership: We began to hear this morning from Democrats who were getting robo-calls from a young man who did not identify himself other than to say he was calling on behalf of the Watauga Republican Party, urging the recipient of the call to go vote for the Republican team. And he obligingly named the candidates for mayor and all the Republicans running for council. These calls were happening this morning, after voting had commenced. If they were also underway earlier, when they might have actually produced some benefit, we didn't hear about it.

We repeat ... registered Democrats got these calls. Which served in at least one case to get an apathetic Democrat up off the couch to get dressed and to go in and vote -- armed with the information from the robo-call of who NOT to vote for.

But this is the best part: the robo-call urged citizens to vote for four Republican candidates for council, in what was a three-way race. Did the leadership of the party not realize that the candidate who got 62 votes had actually pulled out weeks ago?

No ... I take it back. This is the best part: Rep. Virginia Foxx is on record opposing political robo-calls. In fact, she's introduced legislation to ban them outright.

When they're used this ineptly, she's absolutely right.

Labels: Aaron Whitener, Town of Boone, Virginia Foxx, Watauga County Republican Party