Daily Whackjob

Allen in the Senate and Wolf in the House have put forward a destructive piece of pork called the “Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act,” which on its surface is just pork to dump money in the state for a so called corridor of protected historical area.

Since Republicans are supposed to stand for property rights, I find it hard to believe that the Rhinestone Cowboy and Grandpa Wolf would put forward a bill that would so blatantly take away the rights of property owners along this corridor.

From Human Events Online:

The Allen-Wolf initiative seems harmless at first glance, save for the wasteful spending. It appears to only divert federal dollars to a local special-interest group for the stated purpose of promoting heritage tourism, thereby allowing politicians like Allen and Wolf to boast about the project in their stump speeches.

If only it were that simple.

For those who may be unfamilar with them, national heritage areas are federally-designated, heavily-regulated land areas over which special interest groups and federal employees are given special powers and federal resources to help them steer land-use decisions. Property rights frequently are curtailed.

Allen’s bill, which would create a new national heritage area covering large parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, would create a “management entity” for the region comprised of federal employees and preservationist interest groups—many of the latter having a history of anti-property rights agendas. This new management entity would be required to create an “inventory” of all property to be “preserved,” “managed,” or “acquired.” The new management entity would be granted the authority to disburse federal funds to encourage restrictions on local land use and the acquisition of private property.

The article uses an example about Yuma Crossing Heritage Area in Arizona:

When the Yuma Crossing Heritage Area was authorized in 2000, the public in Yuma County did not understand the scope of the project and was surprised by the size of the designation… Concerns were raised by citizens about the size of the designation and the potential for additional Federal oversight. The fear of adverse impacts on private property rights were realized when local government agencies began to use the immense heritage area boundary to determine zoning restrictions.

So, for you who live along 15 in Virginia/Maryland/Pennsylvania, good luck with that. Or you might think about voting for Judy Feder or Jim Webb.

While Frank Wolf was on vacation, Judy Feder was joined by Delegate Dave Poisson and state Senator Mark Herring in canvassing the Cascade District in Loudoun today. She met with several of the residents and received a lot of positive support. Just like other placed in the district, Democrats are seeing disgruntled Republicans lean more to the left due.
At least Grandpa Wolf is smart enough to vacation instead of attempting to shut down the HOV to get a fundraiser out of Bush. Though, it’s only a matter of time before Wolf brings Bush in to help him compete with Feder’s power fundraising. While other Republicans are doing their best to keep Bush far away from their district, Wolf is still standing by his man, no matter how low it will drag him.

Come on George Bush, show up in the district for Wolf so his number will tank like yours.

The DCCC is holding a contest to elect the Candidate for Change contest. As you know, Judy Feder is really working hard to bring a change into the 10th district by defeating Grandpa Wolf. Ever little bit helps. So, click here and write in Judy Feder as your choice for the DCCC Candidate for a Change.

Judy Feder will be live blogging tonight on DailyKos. Stop by, ask questions. This goes for your Republicans also.

The numbers are in and Judy Feder out-raised Frank Wolf again for the third straight reporting period. In all of Q2, Judy raised 318k, exceeding Wolf by 36k. The Feder campaign has closed the cash-on-hand gap to under 175k.

More details coming once Kenton gets all the analysis done.

Update:

Kenton has posted his excellent analysis of Judy “The Tiger” Feder’s raising.

Judy Feder has put forth some solutions to the energy problems facing our country, including gas prices and pollution. Briefly, her ideas are:

• Take back the incentives that have been given to the oil and gas companies and use that money to fund research into better energy technologies.
• Encourage automakers to build more efficient cars, including green cars, by providing assistance with health care costs for current and retired employees.
• A windfall tax on oil companies who are reporting record earnings amid rising gas prices.
• Doubling the number of E85 pumps nationwide.

Frank Wolf’s office states that Wolf is supporting alternative fuel sources by supporting the H-Prize, a $10 million dollar contest to further hydrogen vehicles and distribution. The difference here is that Feder is pushing a plan that is already a possibility, with many cars available (and most cars made after 1988 can burn a higher mixture than 10% of E85 without damage or loss of fuel economy) that are capable of using E85 fuel and an existing, albeit small, distribution system. Wolf is pushing a system that doesn’t exist and would take much longer to develop, even with a $10 million dollar prize.

Judy’s “Healthcare for Hybrids” program is designed to encourage automakers to increase fuel efficiency and develop more green cars. Automakers’ largest expense is health care, and by offering government assistance to pay for it, America gets better fuel economy and more green car options, and auto-workers are guaranteed health care.

With the amount of time I’ve spent with Judy Feder, I can assure anyone who has questions that she wants to talk with you and discuss any questions. Just call or e-mail the campaign.

Tomorrow, the Feder campaign will release that they raised over 318k in the 2nd quarter. It will be very interesting to see if they out raise Wolf for the 2nd straight quarter (3rd straight reporting period). The Feder campaign has now raised over 607k. Is there no stopping these guys? Congrats Team Feder!

It’s the last day of the fundraising period and Judy is almost there. She is now less than 2k short of her goal of raising 100k online in the month of June. How does this break down:

1 person gives 2000.00
10 people give 200.00
100 people give 20.00
1000 people give 2.00

Believe me, a few bucks goes such a long way in this campaign where Frank Wolf sends free press mailings (paid for by your tax dollars). Please consider giving what you can, even if it’s only a few dollars.

P.S. - To the Wolf staffers, now is your chance to really shine and help a great candidate.

The Feder campaign is 8k shy of their goal of 100k raised online in the month of June. Together, we can raise the money needed to attack Frank Wolf’s ability to send free campaign mailers. Can you donate 10 bucks? 20 bucks? These amounts may seem small, but if enough people donate, they add up quickly. Please donate what you can to help change the 10th Congressional District of Virginia for the better.

And the intern at Frank Wolf’s office who stops by daily, could you ask Frank if he would be willing to donate a few bucks. Hell, you could all pool some of that gas and oil money.

Attending: Lowell from RK, Ben Tribbett from NLS, and myself.

Highlights from conference call:

• The campaign has raised over 500k!
• Fixing gas and oil: stop give-aways, invest in alternative fuels, take advantage of existing technologies like ethanol (we need pumps at the stations), focus on smart growth (public transportation and making it more available), and we need efficiency (cars, buildings, appliances).
• Health care costs are killing the auto industry and making it more expensive to produce efficient vehicles.
• Frank Wolf votes 90% with the Bush agenda.
• People want a change.
• Repealing the estate tax: very small number of people are paying it.
• Bush tax cuts: We need a fair tax systems and we have an abandonment of fiscal responsibility. We need to go back to pay as we go.
• Gas and oil give-aways would give us back 48 million billion dollars, and we should reinvest that money in energy research (more efficient autos and alternative fuels).
• Why did you get into the race? “It’s been harder to play a useful role from the outside by putting the truth out there and the costs of our current direction are too high. I have too much energy to sit on the sidelines.”
• “What we need are leaders that are willing to participate in the process.”
• “By calling people and talking with people, I’ve been able to raise the resources needed.”
• We need to review metro to Dulles and build an underground solution in a fiscally responsible way.

I think Judy did very well. She was open, honest, and she didn’t shirk any questions.

Judy Feder passed her goal of raising 60k in June, and she currently stands at $70,345, all thanks to you guys out there. Judy has set another challenge of trying to raise 100k for June, which means we need a little under 30k in the next 4 days. With your help, we can make this happen. This is about 7.5k per day, which as we’ve seen before is very possible.
Please donate anything you can. 5-10 bucks can add up quickly, 10-20 even faster. It’s important that Judy keep out-raising Frank Wolf each quarter as she’s battling his 26 years of inaction and free mailings. You can donate here.

Interestingly, there’s two attack posts on Judy Feder today (BVBL and 2C). Is this is foreshadowing of a Wolf failure to raise enough funds again or is he reacting to polling numbers that show he’s vulnerable? Is Wolf finally afraid of having to work to get re-elected?

The silence has been deafening for a while and all of a sudden, Republican blogs are on the attack (at least BVBL seems to be using Wolf’s oppo research, while Vince can only call her a lesbian).

Judy Feder who is running against Frank Wolf in the 10th district needs your help. They set a goal to raise 60k in the month of June and have reached 58k. They need 2k more to reach this important fundraising goal. As you may know, Team Feder has out-raised Frank Wolf in every reporting so far, and they can do it again with your help.

If everyone who reads this will donate 10-20 bucks, we can hit that goal tonight. Please donate a few dollars to wonderful candidate who can go a long way to helping make Congress a better place for rational, sane people who don’t own oil companies.

My boy Lowell over at RK is helping to lead the charge on this.

In all the negativity, I want to point out what I feel is a representation of the views of most Democrats. Josh Chernila wrote this post over at Raising Kaine. It’s not secret among my friends that I’ve been sick about the nastiness between people (especially between friends) in this primary. It bothers me to see rational people like Paul get upset and write some things I don’t think he means, or Ben to advocate to have an elected official who supports Miller removed from office in the next election. I’m especially bothered when intelligent people advocate calling up a campaign office and attacking the staff.
Say what you will, but all sides have been negative in this campaign, regardless of who threw the first punch (and by all sides, I mean both campaigns, bloggers, and elected officials).

Josh’s post at RK this morning made me feel better. It was a shot of rationality in this race of anger and hysteria (something I only expected from Waldo). He will support Miller if he wins (though he won’t work for him, which is what the Miller campaign can expect from the majority of the Webb supporters). Josh didn’t call anyone a traitor or advocate to work against any Miller endorsers. Josh was honest with his feelings without attacking, and I respect that. I think we can all respect what Josh has to say.

I hope that we don’t lose friends over this. I know a lot of us have lost a sense of fairness and purity to the process here, something that can never be regained. But I look forward to having dinner with my friends again once this is over, and talking about something other than Jim Webb and Harris Miller…something like Judy Feder (who could kick both their asses). Yeah, I said it. Miller and Webb, you’re lucky Judy didn’t want to waste her time with you two, she could take you both out. Bring it suckers.
Sorry, I get caught up in that sometimes. So, Tuesday, go vote for the guy you like best, that’s how Democracy works, and try to refrain from attacking another person because they like a different guy. Their vote is just as powerful as yours. Remember, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or a god-like Deity, you’re the same thing as everyone else, an American. We fight hard for what we believe in because that’s what Americans are good at…that and baseball (hey, an American team always wins the World Series). That guy next to you at the polling place is a fellow Democrat, a fellow American, and possibly an all-star shortstop.

Tomorrow, please vote for Judy Feder for Senate.

Click to embiggen (per Waldo):

Frank Wolf is up to his old tricks again. Running a tough election? Afraid to get voted out? Might lose that House gravy train? Lets start a commission. Why does a commission work for Wolf? It gives the appearence of doing something while it takes 2 years to come to the same conclusions that Judy Feder came to 20 years ago. The voters won’t be fooled.

Feder: “We Don’t Need a Commission. We Need Real Leadership.”

Sterling, VA — Judy Feder, Democratic candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 10th District, today criticized Congressman Frank Wolf’s announcement of a proposed commission on the budget crisis.

“It seems that Frank Wolf has suddenly recognized that he’s squandered the resources needed to meet our obligations to our aging population by running up the national debt,” said Feder of Wolf’s speech announcing his proposed commission.

In his speech, Wolf quoted President Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

Unfortunately, Feder said, it is Wolf himself who is trying to escape responsibility for creating this dire fiscal situation by hiding his record in Congress.

“Frank Wolf has supported the Bush agenda 90% of the time, passing budgets with the largest deficits in history, raiding Social Security, and delivering huge giveaways to oil and drug companies. Mr. Wolf and President Bush have run up $8 trillion federal debt. Now it seems Mr. Wolf wants to force seniors to pay for his mistakes by cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits.”\n

Feder, Dean of Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and one of the nation’s leading policy experts on healthcare, compared Wolf’s warnings of a fiscal crisis to another avoidable disaster.

“Frank Wolf’s admonishing the American people to be more fiscally responsible is like the captain of the Titanic telling drowning passengers that they should have taken swimming lessons.

“After 26 years in Congress, Frank Wolf doesn’t seem to understand that he can’t escape the problems he’s helped create with commissions. What we need is real leadership and a fresh approach that Frank Wolf cannot provide.”

Forward Together (Mark Warner’s PAC) is holding nominations for 10 campaigns to recieve 5000.00 each. Judy Feder has outraised Frank Wolf in the past two quarters, but in order to compete with an incumbent, she needs to continue outraising Wolf.

Judy is a strong candidate and has a chance of beating Frank Wolf. This is a good opportunity for you to help Judy without spending a dime of your own money (though you should really think about donating 5, 10, or 50 dollars to her campaign.

With the big Miller/Webb primary, a lot of visibility is taken away from the other Virginia candidates. This is a chance to bring Judy Feder some great press and visibility.

You can nominate Judy here. If you do go nominate, post a comment so that the Feder campaign can see just how much support she has from the netroots.

The Flickr Photoset it here.
The Sully Dems hosted their Flag Day fundraiser yesterday and it was a major success. In attendance were (in no particular order):

• Judy Feder
• Chuck Caputo
• Mark Herring
• Brian Moran
• Gerry Connolly
• Leslie and Larry Byrne
• Harris Miller
• Jim Webb
• Ken Longmyer
• Chuck Waddell

Harris Miller and Jim Webb both performed wonderfully at the event. Both speeches were well done and very much made me proud to be a Dem. No matter which wins, I think we’re going to be a better party and a better Virginia for it. I saw two candidates focus very much on the issues, both applauded (genuine applause) when the other made a good point, and both were supportive of the other in their remarks, and after the speeches.

Harris Miller said, as he has a couple of times before, that he will support Jim Webb if he wins the nominee. What made me feel all warm and tingly was that Jim Webb said that if Harris wins, he would stand beside him in the fight against George Allen. I hadn’t heard that from Webb before, and it made the room thaw a lot.

One attendee asked Harris Miller about his latest campaign flyer, even showing the flyer and reading it, and Miller simply stated that “those are Jim Webb’s words.” Harris Miller held firm to his points, and no one could argue. Those are Jim Webb’s words. Jim Webb addressed that saying that he’s a writer and has “two million words out there.” I still need to review and see if these points are out of context.
When it was over, both candidates shook hands and chatted briefly. Neither looked uncomfortable or upset, and for just a moment, the primary was put on hold in respect for party unity.

To answer the question of the day, both candidates were surrounded by people through the entire event. These people weren’t groupies, but intelligent, informed Democrats who asked hard questions of both candidates.

At the end of Jim Webb’s speech, he took questions and I asked him about his support of DADT. He wasn’t able to answer since I asked in the last 10 seconds of his allotted time. After he talked with Harris Miller for a moment (where I was taking pictures of them), he came over to me and wanted to continue to answer my question. Someone was making an announcement and Jim Webb said, “If you’ll step outside with me, we can talk more.” However, the announcement was finished as soon as Webb said that, and we spent a few minutes talking about it. His views on DADT are complicated (and none of the blogs have explained it correctly yet). I’m not sure I’ve even fully got my head around it, but it does make sense in some ways. I kept asking if it’s a logistical issue, and Jim kept trying to explain it further. This is going to be a tough sell to gay and lesbian voters, who don’t have the opportunity to spend 5-10 minutes with Jim Webb. I hope the campaign can write some sort of position paper on this, to give some of us some talking points with friends and neighbors.

After Jim Webb left, I got to speak with Harris Miller for a while. We talked about the upcoming primary, about transportation, GLBT issues, and Iraq.
While both Miller and Webb speak well, neither one compares to Judy Feder. Jim and Harris both got 3-4 rounds of applause each in their 15 minute allotted time, Judy got 16 rounds of applause in 10 minutes. The room was electrified as always and the small chatter that persisted during other speeches was absent, all eyes locked on her.

An interesting note. On Union Mills road, there were tons of Webb and Miller signs at the start of the event, including a 4 x 8 Webb sign. After the event, someone had taken down all these signs. My autographed copy of Born Fighting after the jump.

Continue Reading »

I’ve spent the last few months with the Feder campaign, taking photos at one to two events a week. I’ve seen the campaign grow from a few volunteers (Lee, Jerry, Jennifer, Bruce, and others), Jessie Bradley (2006 Hottest Campaign Staffer), Judy’s son Lester and her husband Stan (the sausage king) to now add 2 operatives (welcome Jessica and Pete) and a grip more volunteers. I feel less like part of a campaign and more like part of a family.

Judy is such a dynamic person to be around, everyone gravitates to her at events. When she speaks, a trance falls over the audience, and they hang on every word. I’ve heard her sing the Star Spangled Banner (she’s got a wonderful voice), I’ve shared a lot of laughs with her, eaten Memorial Day Breakfast with her and Bruce Roemmelt, and I’ve watched a dedicated volunteer base work their collective asses off for someone they truly believe in.

If you’ve watched my flickr photostreamam, you’ve seen my chronicles of the campaign events. I hope to continue my work with the campaign until the end and one day, publish an essay of a clean, well-run campaign. This may all change when Frank Wolf starts his attacks.

Today, Judy was at the Herndon Festival and met with many 10th district voters. She had a lot of great conversations with many supporters. Judy never rushes these conversations, she spends as much time as she can talking with people. It’s fascinating to watch them open up and share their frustrations with her.

Check the flickr set for photos of Pete and Jessica, as well as the volunteers who came to hand out literature. Please consider donating time or money to the Feder campaign. A few hours or a few bucks can go a long way. Frank Wolf is vulnerable. He’s rested comfortably for 26 years and it’s time for some new blood; someone who won’t vote party lines or bow down to pressure from the corrupt Bush administration.

Judy Feder needs your help. She’s fighting against an incumbent who has money and regular donors. While she out raised frank wolf 2:1 last quarter, Frank Wolf won’t let this happen again. He is contacting every donor that gave to any of his last 13 campaigns to out raise Judy this quarter. Please donate to her campaign. If we could get 2000 people to give $30, we could reach our goal. If you would like to donate, click here.

You can also sign up to volunteer at JudyFeder.com. There are three upcoming volunteer opportunities:

6/1, 5:30-8:30 Flyering at the Herndon Festival!
Meet at main gate on Elden St., in front of Old Town Hall, Herndon.

6/3, 4:00-8:30 Flyering at the Herndon Festival!
Meet at main gate on Elden St., in front of Old Town Hall, Herndon.

6/5 and 6/6 4-9 pm
Event phonebank!
Feder Campaign Headquarters
46950 Jenning’s Farm Dr., Suite 100, Sterling

Call (703) 433-1310 if you’d like to lend a hand!

Together we can beat Frank Wolf, who has voted party lines 90% of the time, voted to ease house rules to let criminals like Tom Delay continue to make laws, and hasn’t done anything for Virginia’s transportation problems except give up.