BlueRidgeForum

UPDATE JUNE 19! Breitbart “Live Blog: Tea Party’s IRS, Immigration Rallies” Click here and scroll down to Bongino (3:00 PM).

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This noon in Frederick, Maryland (1450 Taney Ave) former Secret Service Special Agent Dan Bongino will formally kick off his campaign for United States Representative in Maryland’s 6^th Congressional District.

Bongino campaigning last November with Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer at Frederick, Maryland Chick-fil-a.

These are perilous times for America, and we asked Maryland GOP superstar Bongino for his blunt take on three exigent issues the fallout from which he will have to deal with if elected to the U. S. House next November:

(1) Blue Ridge Forum: Do you support the Schumer-Rubio-Paul Ryan approach to immigration policy? Bongino: No. The bill does not address border security with metrics, it relies on DHS discretion. Also, I do not support amnesty.

(2) Blue Ridge Forum: Would you vote for the current farm-food stamp bill coming before the House? Bongino: No. The bill should be broken into a SNAP [food stamp] measure for an up or down vote and a separate farm insurance measure for an up or down vote.

(3) Blue Ridge Forum: Do you believe what is described as the FBI’s policy of keeping mosques off limits should be continued? Bongino: No. Terror and criminality do not take a vacation in Mosques.

(Readers can click here for a summary of the 1000-plus-page Schumer-Rubio package, click here for food-stamp farm-bill commentary by Marylander Daniel Horowitz, and click here for intelligence professional Clare Lopez’ background piece on the FBI and the Jihadists.)

Stay tuned for what will be a competitive House race by a GOP challenger who won’t flinch from talking about the grave dangers our country faces.

UPDATES JUNE 18:

• In RadioAmerica’s “Parsing Boehner” GregC reports: “A House-Senate conference committee is convened to reconcile different versions of legislation in the House and Senate.  Once the conference agrees on a final version, the two chambers vote on that bill with no opportunity for amendments.  That’s the scenario that has [Representative Louie] Gohmert and others worried. ‘If we get a bill back that has amnesty and 99 percent of the Democrats vote for it and the Speaker can put the pressure on 30, 40, 50 of our guys, people that are committee chairs or in leadership positions, then they can still pass it even without a majority (of Republican support),’ said Gohmert. ‘We have understood that the Speaker didn’t want to bring a bill to the floor of the House originally .  Our concern is bringing a conference report to the floor that a majority of the Republicans do not support,’ he said.” (Highlighting Forum’s) Read the entire report here.

• Rush Limbaugh: “They’re [Republicans] looking at it financially, number one.  All of their big money wants the bill.  All of the Republican major donors want this bill.  I’ll give you some names.  The Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson.  I mean, they want the bill, because they want the influx of new labor.  They want it.  They’re not concerned with how anybody’s gonna vote down the line.  As long as these guys can stay aligned with whoever is running government, they’re in fat city…. If Frank Luntz comes in and tells you that’s what his focus group says, what are you gonna believe?  If Mike Murphy, or take your pick, Steve Schmidt, if he comes in and tells you, ‘You know what, you’re never gonna get another dime if you don’t do…’ what are they gonna do?  These are the people they trust.” (Highlighting Forum’s) Click here and scroll down.

* * * * * * * * * *

Amnesty Suicide: The End of Our Liberty, Property, & Culture

“By repeatedly passing bills that contradict the identity of Republican voters and of the majority of Republican elected representatives, the Republican leadership has made political orphans of millions of Americans. In short, at the outset of 2013 a substantial portion of America finds itself un-represented, while Republican leaders increasingly represent only themselves.” (Highlighting Forum’s) – Angelo Codevilla

The Gang of Eight (and their enablers in both parties) propose a 1000-page-plus package (click here for details), that, if enacted, would likely lead — within the decade — to the end of the United States as we know it:

• 33 million new souls over ten years (click on foregoing link and also click here) whom we will not have the time (nor apparently the will) to assimilate to our values – - ‘Western Cultural Suicide,” as Victor Davis Hanson calls it;
• an America divided into ethnic enclaves, with city governments soon granting voting rights to large numbers of non-citizens;
• a growing flood of immigrants who favor neither small government nor understand constitutional safeguards; and all managed by a bi-partisan ruling class which believes in neither;
• all that apart from jobs denied to Americans by cheap imported labor, and an additional $6 trillion plus price tag for welfare.

Laura Ingraham: “If the House/Senate conference is likely to produce a bill we don’t like, then we don’t want any bill to pass the House at all.”

 GOP voices of the Gang of Eight have been less than truthful about their proposal.

Mark Levin interviews Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald

Click here to listen (via The Right Scoop) to Mark Levin interview Heather MacDonald on the accuracy of governor Jeb Bush’s pro-amnesty statements, and on those of senator Marco Rubio and Representative Paul Ryan.

Last Saturday Paul Mirengoff explained

“So what is the magic number of House Republicans needed to pass amnesty/path to citizenship legislation? In a sense it is 2, but a very particular 2 — Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor.

Unfortunately, to that extent the fix may truly be in. Speaker Boehner has said that passing immigration reform is a top priority for him. And Eric ‘Wall Street’ Cantor probably perceives an even higher sense of urgency for enacting this pro-business legislation.”

Fortunately in the House of Representatives there has been a “Revolt Among Republicans on Immigration Bill: 70 House Members Risk Careers in Planned Showdown With Leadership” (via The Blaze click here).

In response, the “House GOP [Will] Hold ‘Special Conference’ On Immigration” (via NRO click here).

The (GOP, if readers had forgotten) Speaker of the House is quoted as declaring (click here via The Blaze):

“he doesn’t ‘intend’ to push an immigration bill that violates Republican Party ‘principles.’”

No matter what immigration bill the House passes, it will likely go into a House-Senate conference where the odds are that much of the Gang of 8 package will survive in a conference report that the House will then approve with the votes of all Democrats and “enough” Republicans.

This is why Laura Ingraham counsels (click here) 

If the House/Senate conference is likely to produce a bill we don’t like, then we don’t want any bill to pass the House at all. We don’t want hearings. We don’t want discussion. We would rather have them drop the issue altogether and worry about issues that are actually important to the overwhelming majority of Americans.’

And Ingraham’s conclusion–

‘We will not be distracted. No matter how often John McCain and Eric Cantor criticize the Obama Administration over the IRS scandal or Benghazi, or how many times Paul Ryan calls for serious entitlement reform, or how many filibusters are led by Mitch McConnell. If they want our support in 2014, then they have to come through for us on immigration — period. Immigration is the Obama Administration’s top priority, and if handled badly by Republicans, it will give the Democrats a permanent working majority. If the Republicans can’t get this right, then there is little reason for conservatives to keep voting Republican.’ (Highlighting Forum’s throughout.)”

In Maryland and Virginia, we have heard no statewide incumbents or candidates, or House GOP incumbents or candidates speak against this amnesty poison pill.

Readers may let us know should they see such specific statements, and we will post them with pleasure.

What then can we conservatives in Maryland and Virginia do?

We must band together with like-minded colleagues, neighbors, and friends to meet in person with House GOP members. 

We must ask that they prevent the House leadership from bringing to the floor any legislative vehicle that will likely enable nearly all Democrats and a handful of Republicans to enact amnesty in any of its flavors.

We cannot stop amnesty just by a flood of emails or phone calls, or just by talking to House staffers.

We are asking GOP members to heed us instead of their leadership which has had their hearts (and those of  big donors) set on “comprehensive immigration reform.”

We can do this best by meeting with GOP members face to face and, if necessary, in their local lairs.

If we are not successful, the immigration floodgates unlocked by this amnesty will be opened and, in a decade, our America may well be gone

And we don’t have much time to derail the Speaker’s priority to pass an immigration bill.

As we reported (click here), the Maryland GOP’s June 20 “Red, White, and Blue Dinner” Features ‘Amnesty Paul’ Ryan. (Click here for dinner details and fancy prices.)

The GOP faithful at the dinner surely should be entitled to question Representative Ryan closely on an immigration approach that will transform the face of America.

We noted last week –

“The amnesty bill, if enacted, is the end of the U. S. as we know it: 

• 33 million new souls over ten years (click on foregoing link and also click here) whom we will not have the time (nor apparently the will) to assimilate to our values – - ‘Western Cultural Suicide,’ as Victor Davis Hanson calls it;

• an America divided into ethnic enclaves, with city governments soon granting voting rights to large numbers of non-citizens;

• a growing flood of immigrants who favor neither small government nor understand constitutional safeguards; and all managed by a bi-partisan ruling class which believes in neither;

• all that apart from jobs denied to Americans by cheap imported labor, and a $6 trillion plus price tag for welfare.

In short, the ‘comprehensive’ amnesty bill is a poison pill for our country.”

Mark Levin Audio on Paul Ryan

Mark Levin this Wednesday (click here for audio and text via Jeff Poor at the Daily Caller) gives us both context and questions about Mr. Ryan’s position on immigration.

At this crucial time in our nation’s future, we should hear in some detail from a younger House GOP leader on a Party initiative about which the base is clearly outraged.

And Andy Harris?

Will Representative Andy Harris also be present at the “Red, White, and Blue Dinner”?

If so, guests could then ask Dr. Harris to expand on his own position on amnesty.

And Maryland GOP stalwarts who attend could also ask Dr. Harris–

• If he will join the 43 House members (click here) who urged the U.S. Senate to reject the nomination of Marylander Tom Perez as Secretary of Labor.
• When Dr. Harris’ appropriations panel will act to defund Obamacare, to defund those Federal programs advancing ‘smart growth’ in Maryland and elsewhere, and to defund job-busting EPA regulations.
• Whether he supports Speaker John Boehner’s strong endorsement of the farm (i.e., food-stamp) bill.

Stay tuned to learn of more GOP Establishment initiatives to put lipstick on big government!

UPDATES JUNE 11 AFTER PRESS TIME!

• “The Chuck Schumer Republicans Roll Amnesty Train Down the Cliff” declares Daniel Horowitz reporting that “the Senate just voted 82-15 to proceed with debate on the amnesty/immigration deform bill.  Every Democrat voted yes, laying waste to the notion that there are still moderate red state Democrats.  15 Republicans voted to stand with We the People against the La Raza foreign lobby/K Street juke box.” Click here for entire post.

• Senate Anti-Gang-of-Eight Memo (via NRO). Click here for memo text.

• “Boehner: House Republicans to Focus on Immigration as Senate Moves Ahead” Newsmax reports. “House Republican leaders are seeking to speed up efforts to craft U.S. immigration-law proposals as the Senate nears the first test votes on its own plan.” No room for conservatives in the Gang of Boehner.

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Amnesty Now? Beltway GOP Pushes A Bill To Deconstruct America

“Sadly, it is very difficult to foresee a scenario in which a bill fails to pass the Senate before the July 4th weekend.  No matter how successfully we expose the duplicity and danger involved in this legislation, there are at least 60 members who couldn’t care less.  However, it is still important that we keep the numbers down, as evidenced by Schumer’s desire for a super-majority.  Conservatives must stifle the temptation to focus their attention solely on the scandals, and make a concerted effort to pressure the GOP members against this travesty.” (Highlighting Forum’s) – Daniel Horowitz

This afternoon at 2:15 PM the U. S. Senate will take an important first vote to move ahead on S.744, the Gang of Eight’s amnesty bill.   

As Daniel Horowitz pointed out in RedState yesterday in his “Primer on the Upcoming Senate Immigration Debate” –

“In a sane world, Senate Republicans would all vote against the motion (even assuming we lose the 4 GOP gang members plus Susan Collins and Kelly Ayotte), and this national nightmare would be over.  They would recognize that the bill is beyond fatally flawed and cannot (or will not)  be salvaged by proceeding to debate with the amendment process.  They would demand that Obama implement the current laws on the books before discussing any amnesty and repeating the mistakes of 1986.

Unfortunately, the GOP leadership in the Senate is also fatally flawed.  Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Cornyn have announced their plans to vote for cloture, all but ensuring that at least 15 more Republicans join them in sealing the fate of this bill.  Obviously, it is still important for Republicans to pressure their members into voting no.  The lower the number of no votes is on the first vote, the more momentum it will give to the proponents of amnesty.” (Highlighting Forum’s)

In our view, the House GOP leadership skirts very close to the fatally-flawed line as well.

To understand the enormity we face, read all of the Horowitz post here.

Then consider carefully today’s release from the Center for Immigration Studies: “Gang of 8 Bill Will Further Erode Social Equality: S. 744 ensures less-educated Americans stay in poverty” here.

“In addition to the huge increase in legal immigration, the bill weakens immigration law enforcement, creating an incentive for future would-be illegal immigrants to ignore U.S. law and enter the country. This ensures that there will be yet more amnesties in the future, keeping less-educated Americans in a never-ending cycle of poverty. They will rely on charity and government transfers, in a time of record deficits, with no hope of ever leading a life with dignity or hope.”

A week ago today, we wrote in our “Amnesty Dinner? MD GOP Chair Waterman & ‘Truth in Advertising’”

“The amnesty bill, if enacted, is the end of the U. S. as we know it: 

• 33 million new souls over ten years (click on foregoing link and also click here) whom we will not have the time (nor apparently the will) to assimilate to our values – “Western Cultural Suicide,” as Victor Davis Hanson calls it;

• an America divided into ethnic enclaves, with city governments soon granting voting rights to large numbers of non-citizens;

• a growing flood of immigrants who favor neither small government nor understand constitutional safeguards; and all managed by a bi-partisan ruling class which believes in neither;

• all that apart from jobs denied to Americans by cheap imported labor, and a $6 trillion plus price tag for welfare.”

And we asked –

“Will Mr. Ryan’s House of Representatives stop the Gang of Eight amnesty? 

Laura Ingraham explained the dangers last week–

‘If the House/Senate conference is likely to produce a bill we don’t like, then we don’t want any bill to pass the House at all. We don’t want hearings. We don’t want discussion. We would rather have them drop the issue altogether and worry about issues that are actually important to the overwhelming majority of Americans.’

And Ingraham’s conclusion–

‘We will not be distracted. No matter how often John McCain and Eric Cantor criticize the Obama Administration over the IRS scandal or Benghazi, or how many times Paul Ryan calls for serious entitlement reform, or how many filibusters are led by Mitch McConnell. If they want our support in 2014, then they have to come through for us on immigration — period. Immigration is the Obama Administration’s top priority, and if handled badly by Republicans, it will give the Democrats a permanent working majority. If the Republicans can’t get this right, then there is little reason for conservatives to keep voting Republican.’ (Highlighting Forum’s throughout.)”

Our bottom line today: will prominent Maryland and Virginia Republican politicians help reverse the rush to amnesty in the GOP and start speaking against this measure and its misguided proponents from both parties? 

Any continued silence by GOP incumbents and major candidates simply confirms one new reality: the members of the GOP conservative base are now political orphans.

Steve Stockman, Mark Levin, candidate Dave LaRock (photo via LaRock Campaign)

Time for a change from too much government.

We urge Virginia District 33 citizens to vote for Dave LaRock for the GOP nomination for delegate in this Tuesday’s primary.

A conservative district needs a conservative voice!

UPDATES JUNE 12!

• “In decisive fashion, LaRock ousts May in GOP primary” declares LoudonTimes.com’s Trevor Baratko here. “Dave LaRock established his political reputation around this time last year as he lobbied tirelessly for the local Board of Supervisors to opt out of the multi-billion dollar Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. It was all about taxes then, and it still is.”

• The Winchester Star reports here “Republican primary voters have denied Del. Beverly Sherwood an 11th term in office.”

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Bill Bolling’s Picks: How Many Statists In The GOP Living Room?

“The choice for the Republican Party is whether to invest more in the 2010 strategy of this populist strain, to refine it and connect more policy proposals to it … or to embark on an effort to restore the party’s standing as the adult in the room – the competent, clean cut, good-government technocracy that sees the chief appeal of Republican politicians as combining agencies and seeking out efficiencies rather than rolling back government power and draining bureaucratic swamps. The GOP swung back to this technocratic approach on a national scale in 2012, and let’s just say the electoral results left much to be desired.” (Highlighting Forum’s)– Ben Domenech

Virginia lieutenant governor Bill Bolling apparently aspires to a new role in the Old Dominion through his Virginia Mainstream Project.

Yesterday he endorsed (click here) long-time incumbent delegates Beverly Sherwood (District 29), Joe May (District 33), and Bobby Orrock (District 54). 

These members, notorious for their support of governor Bob McDonnell’s $6.1 billion tax hike, are facing energetic challenges in next Tuesday’s GOP primary.

Readers may wish to revisit, for more context, our Virginia Tea Partiers, Grass Roots On Trail of 3 Errant GOP Delegates

One senses that the good Mr. Bolling yearns for the era of Bob Dole – a former Republican senator then respected and popular inside the Beltway –whom some crass upstart called “the tax collector for the welfare state.”

Long-time Virginia pol Bolling makes his political approach clear:

“The Virginia Mainstream Project supports candidates who understand what it takes to govern Virginia effectively, candidates who will keep their focus on responsible public policies to control spending, create a pro-business environment in Virginia and find bi-partisan solutions to the most important issues facing our state.  I am pleased to give my support and the support of VMP to these candidates, who have proven throughout their public service careers that you can stand strong for conservative values and work with Republicans and Democrats to actually get things done in Richmond.”

The problem is, all this sounds like crony-capitalism (pro-business, not pro-market) with a big emphasis on deal cutting with the Other Team — a powerful faction committed to transforming not just Washington, D. C., but Virginia and all the states. 

Whatever the Other Team’s many faults, they do have discipline and a vision – however revolutionary. This is why they are dangerous. Does the lieutenant governor believe the Other Team is led by Reagan Democrats?

Mr. Bolling doubtless speaks the same language as Big Virginia – big business, big education, big health industry, big developers, big transportation, big planners –  and other enemies of free markets, universities free of diversity bureaucrats, consumer choice and power, and low regulation.

Big Virginia’s bet apparently is to survive by serial accommodation with the Other Team. The Other Team, however, likely will charge continually higher policy prices.

As for “getting things done in Richmond,” we prefer getting the giant tax hike “undone.”

Big Government  Crashes Into Scandal Around Us,
Yet Bolling Is Still a True Believer

Bill Bolling’s approach does not even have the scent of  a “conservative” program.  With the administrative state at all levels out of control, we doubt that he has given much thought to reining it in. We just don’t see any emphasis on freedom, but a great deal of weight given to the priorities of the Richmond Political Class.

Which is why he supports Beverly Sherwood, Joe May, and Bobby Orrock.

And why Virginia conservatives should support challengers Dr. Mark Berg, Dave LaRock, and Dustin Curtis.

(Via Wikipaedia)

Ronald Reagan reminded us of the day’s significance – -see video here (via NRO and Reagan Foundation) “President Reagan’s Address at the Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, D-day at Point-du-Hoc – 6/6/84.”

UPDATE AFTER PRESS TIME! “Press Release of Senator Cruz. Gang of Eight Bill Does Not Uphold Promises to Secure Border, Enforce the Law, or Improve Legal Immigration. Cruz, Sessions, Lee, Grassley Pen Letter Voicing Concerns with S. 744.” Click here and scroll down to read entire text of letter from four GOP senators.

Amnesty Dinner? MD GOP Chair Waterman & ‘Truth in Advertising’

“Nothing unifies the American elite like immigration. From Barack Obama to Paul Ryan, from the editorial board of The New York Times to that of The Wall Street Journal, from the offices of Facebook to those of Goldman Sachs, everybody who counts more or less agrees….Unfortunately, the broad elite agreement in favor of something like the Senate’s Gang of Eight deal says less about the merits of the deal than about the widening gap between American political and economic elites and the country they govern.”(Highlighting Forum’s)  — David Frum

The Maryland GOP’s June 20 “Red, White, and Blue” Dinner Features ‘Amnesty Paul’ Ryan. (Click here for dinner details and fancy prices.)

Is just-elected-by-a-hair GOP chair Diana Waterman counting on Maryland Republicans not to know about prominent House GOP player Ryan’s efforts in behalf of the Schumer-Rubio amnesty scheme?

Click here for a commentary on Mr. Ryan’s efforts (“Ryan-Rubio ‘conservative’ amnesty ads insult our intelligence” by Gina Miller on RenewAmerica). 

Any ‘truth in advertising’ in those ads?

Click here for a chapter-and-verse breakdown of the grossly misleading Rubio ad put together by the Center for Immigration Studies.

(Apparently Mrs. Waterman didn’t have a chance to read this letter from real conservatives across America opposing the Schumer-Rubio-Ryan scheme.)

The amnesty bill, if enacted, is the end of the U. S. as we know it: 

• 33 million new souls over ten years (click on foregoing link and also click here) whom we will not have the time (nor apparently the will) to assimilate to our values – - “Western Cultural Suicide,” as Victor Davis Hanson calls it;
• an America divided into ethnic enclaves, with city governments soon granting voting rights to large numbers of non-citizens;
• a growing flood of immigrants who favor neither small government nor understand constitutional safeguards; and all managed by a bi-partisan ruling class which believes in neither;
• all that apart from jobs denied to Americans by cheap imported labor, and a $6 trillion plus price tag for welfare.

In short, the “comprehensive” amnesty bill is a poison pill for our country.

Will Mr. Ryan’s House of Representatives stop the Gang of Eight amnesty? 

Laura Ingraham explained the dangers last week–

“If the House/Senate conference is likely to produce a bill we don’t like, then we don’t want any bill to pass the House at all. We don’t want hearings. We don’t want discussion. We would rather have them drop the issue altogether and worry about issues that are actually important to the overwhelming majority of Americans.”

And Ingraham’s conclusion–

“We will not be distracted. No matter how often John McCain and Eric Cantor criticize the Obama Administration over the IRS scandal or Benghazi, or how many times Paul Ryan calls for serious entitlement reform, or how many filibusters are led by Mitch McConnell. If they want our support in 2014, then they have to come through for us on immigration — period. Immigration is the Obama Administration’s top priority, and if handled badly by Republicans, it will give the Democrats a permanent working majority. If the Republicans can’t get this right, then there is little reason for conservatives to keep voting Republican.” (Highlighting Forum’s throughout.)

If dinner attendees are eager to celebrate Mr. Ryan’s amnesty efforts by their cheering paid presence, they will fit right in with the GOP Establishment both in Maryland and inside the Beltway.

But for the many conservatives still faithful to the Maryland GOP, they should have all the facts before the Party tries to sell them tickets to a dinner featuring a major amnesty supporter.

This is called informed consent.

Stay tuned.

The typical Tea Partier, in our experience, believes in right-sizing government: not just in Washington, D.C. but on the state and local levels, and, particularly in Virginia, in its mega-counties like Fairfax or Loudoun.

More often than the “official” Tea Party organizations (sometimes co-opted by the GOP Establishment, or guided by very large donors with very narrow vision) want to concede, Tea Partiers and allied grass-roots conservatives are also often strong adherents of traditional values (pro-life and pro-curriculum reform).

Many other Tea Partiers are concerned  about homeland defense (especially those in Virginia about the peril of militant Islam), immigration enforcement (opposed to the Schumer-Rubio-Paul Ryan amnesty), and are strong defenders of the Second Amendment.

Almost all Tea Partiers put a high value — as an action item — on preserving our freedom.

The economically vigilant are wary of being “business friendly” (aka “crony capitalist”) as opposed to advancing market friendly policies.

Jim Pethokoukis explains the difference:

“Yet while a pro-business agenda may intersect at points with a pro-market one, they are not the same thing. Pro-market public policies make markets function fairer and more efficiently for everyone. They encourage competition and ‘creative destruction’ and entrepreneurial capitalism. Pro-business policies often shift taxpayer money and other government goodies to favored companies, raise barriers to entry and otherwise defend the status quo. . . . It’s clear the 11,000 registered lobbyists working in Washington aren’t all there to foster competition and boost market forces. Their job is to gain an edge for specific corporate paymasters.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

A Breaking Point? The Giant Virginia Republican Tax Hike

Delegate Joe May, a long-serving Virginia state legislator and committee chair, is one of apparently only three incumbent GOP delegates (out of  total of 35 Republicans voting yes) facing a  primary challenge June 11 (click here and scroll down) — largely because of their support for governor Bob McDonnell’s historic tax hike of $6.1 billion dollars this February. (Click here for vote.)

Dustin Curtis (challenging incumbent delegate Bobby Orrock because of his votes for the tax hike and enabling Medicaid expansion) was chairman of the Fredericksburg Tea Party Patriots. Curtis reports raising $30,000 from 70 donors.

Mark Berg in the Winchester area is challenging GOP incumbent Beverly Sherwood Dr. Berg is a member of the Apple Valley Tea Party, and the Lynchburg Tea Party is helping the candidate with volunteers.

As we declared at the time the transportation bill was approved – 

$6.1 Billion VA Tax Hike? Kudos To Governor Mitt R. McDonnell

Said the Wall Street Journal editorial pages –

A Cavalier Fiasco: Virginia Republicans try to elect the next Democratic Governor.

noting that . . .

“The big winners are unions, real estate developers and the transit lobby.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

“LoudounOptOut”: David LaRock Emerges as Grass-Roots Leader

Veteran delegate Joe May’s challenger, Dave LaRock, mobilized grass-roots opposition to the extension of the Silver Line (Metrorail to Loudoun) through his LoudounOptOut website (click here).

At the time, we asked “Metrorail: Is Loudoun Losing Control of Its Future?” (see whirlpool graphic below, and click here for story.

Businessman LaRock was almost successful — but for Loudoun County supervisor Ken Reid’s last minute defection to big-government voices (click here) in the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV).

Long-time transportation expert Peter Samuel summed up the situation (click here) in his “Rail in medians of Dulles Toll Road & Greenway wins 5/4 in Loudoun Co as leading opponent flips” –

“Contrary to the view that the Silver train line will bring great development to Loudoun County is that it will be so slow and inconvenient with trip-end mode changes, and stopping every ‘station’  – compared to the near door-to-door cars, vans or buses – that it will attract little patronage and little development. And in this view the tax and toll burdens of supporting the loans needed to pay for the $5.6b Line and the train’s operating losses will make it a serious net detriment to the corridor. New sensing and control technologies heavily favor flexible and customized rubber-tired modes (cars, vans, buses etc) over trains on 19th century steel rails with their old ‘switches’ and ‘stations.’ Road-based vehicles provide the more personalized door to door modes, offering a range of price/service options, versus the train’s one service, no options. The Google car and other self-driving vehicles offer the prospect of major improvements in the convenience, efficiency and safety of road travel, while there are no similar scenarios for improvement in mass transit.”

Mr. LaRock was, in short, a paladin for the freedom of Loudoun County families from the likely endless demands of a voracious metropolitan transit establishment.

Here and here, respectively, are the latest reports on the campaign funds that incumbent May and challenger LaRock have raised, and the individual donors behind these totals.

Can This Party Be Saved?

So why, for example, is a Virginia Republican primary contest encompassing parts of Loudoun, Clarke and Frederick Counties of wider interest?

Certainly Loudoun County, one of the most affluent in America, is a northern Virginia political bellwether.

The LaRock challenge to incumbent delegate May, as we noted, is one of three primaries mounted against GOP delegates largely because the three incumbents supported the historic McDonnell tax hike and eased Medicaid expansion.

But these contests may be harbingers of larger conflicts within the RPV, paralleling the current national struggle for the soul of the GOP.

On the national level, the question is: Can the Beltway GOP continue to make political orphans of the voters who brought the House of Representatives to Republican hands on November 2, 2010, or will the Ted Cruz Reformation bring the national GOP to a smaller government, pro-freedom posture?

In the meantime, Virginia conservatives might wish to point out to any low-information Republican friends –

• The Republican Party of Virginia(RPV) managed to chill dissent over the tax hike (only lieutenant-governor GOP primary candidate Susan Stimpson ignored the RPV‘s ‘crime-think’ code to denounce the malefactors by name).  But across the spectrum of national conservative-libertarian writers, many were volubly dismayed by the governor’s foolishness.

• As for the effect of the governor’s giant tax hike on family budgets, consider that effective July 1, northern Virginians will pay an additional levy of $750 to the Commonwealth when, for example, they sell a house valued at $500,000. Of course, when the property has a higher value, their additional levy above current rates will be even more. (Click here and scroll to bottom to “Regional Congestion Relief Fee.”)

 Stay tuned!

(Via Wikipaedia)

Ann Corcoran’s PTPR post “Sharpsburg: Case that brought a SWAT team to rural town ends with plea deal” (click here) ably sums up the legal conclusion of the Sharpsburg affair — where authorities brought very expensive and potentially dangerous SWAT forces to bear on what turned out to be infractions easily investigated, then addressed by local authorities.

SWAT transparency is one way Maryland citizens can hold law-enforcement organs accountable for the right use of this serious practice.

A measure to extend the sunset of the reporting law and expand the scope of Maryland’s SWAT reporting program passed the Maryland Senate unanimously as summarized in our letter to state senator Christopher Shank.

Below (click here) is the full text of our April 16, 2013 letter, which Mr. Shank, a member of the Judicial Proceedings panel,  apparently did not see:

“Email to Christopher Shanks from Richard Falknor, April 16, 2013

Dear Chris:

As you know, we are a conservative blog covering policy and politics in Maryland and Virginia, and we are particularly interested in — and supportive of — swat-team monitoring and regular reporting.

Click on our March 17, 2013 post – -

UPDATED! Tracking The Right Use & Misuse of SWAT Teams

UPDATE MARCH 22: Hear yesterday’s testimony (click here) from delegate Neil Parrott on his HB 1520 where he states that a ‘friendly amendment’ would incorporate the substance of his measure into HB 1178. Listen (click here) to the extensive March 12  testimony from mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Maryland on delegate Kriselda Valderrama’s HB 1178 as well as the pushback from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. HB 1178’s companion measure SB 590 (click here) passed the Maryland Senate yesterday 47-0. Several members of both parties on the House Judiciary panel were clearly not taken in by the thinly reasoned opposition to SWAT reporting requirements from Maryland law-enforcement voices.

Click on, as well, our August 15, 2008 post –

End SWAT Team Overreach in Maryland and VirginiaThe security of one’s family and property against gross misuse of state power must always be a central conservative concern. Thus we invite the attention of readers to the case of the SWAT team here invasion of the home of mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Maryland.

We have two questions:

(1)  In view of the state senate’s unanimous approval of SB 590

here and earlier in committee here, what figures or organizations or both (presumably in the House of Delegates? or in the governor’s office?) blocked enactment of this expanded approach?

(2)  We have heard that the existing statewide program of SWAT team reporting in Maryland is unique, that no other state has such a requirement.  Is this a fact?

Thank you,

Richard Falknor”

But, as we noted, even though the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee held hearings on a similar measure, HB 1178, no committee vote was held on HB 1178.

The central question for voters  is this: Who stopped the House of Delegates from acting on extending the life and scope of this simple reporting measure? (Listen to mayor Cheye Calvo’s testimony here on what he has found in these reports.)

Were the objections of a member (of either party) on the House Judiciary Committee enough to stop the measure?

The Maryland Law Enforcement Establishment surely drew enough legislative water to slow HB 1178 down. Were they the effective obstacle?

There are cases where SWAT use is clearly appropriate (click here to see author Radley Balko’s 2006 Cato whitepaper and scroll down to page 4):

“The use of paramilitary police units began in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Through the 1970s, the idea slowly spilled out across the country. But at least until the 1980s, SWAT teams and other paramilitary units were used sparingly, only in volatile, high-risk situations such as bank robberies or hostage situations. Likewise, ‘no-knock’ raids were generally used only in situations where innocent lives were determined to be at imminent risk.”. . . . “[Note] [t]he militarization of domestic policing, not just in big cities, but in small towns, suburbs, and exurbs….” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

But indiscriminate use is not only wasteful, but subject to grave abuse — while militarizing the police which should be accountable to citizens, not a means of intimidating them.

Sunlight on the use of SWAT teams is, as elsewhere, the best means of accountability.

Friends of freedom should work to strengthen SWAT reporting — not just in Maryland, but nationally.

* * * * * * * * *

Faithful readers may wish to revisit our posts on this troubling topic:

UPDATED! Tracking The Right Use & Misuse of SWAT Teams

Another Swatting! But Who Else in the GOP ‘Will Keep the Bridge?’

Protecting Free Speech: Where Is the Other 64% of the House GOP?

New Threat to Our Free Political Speech: “SWATTING” Bloggers

No longer “Live Free or Die” in the Granite State?

End SWAT Team Overreach in Maryland and Virginia “The security of one’s family and property against gross misuse of state power must always be a central conservative concern. Thus we invite the attention of readers to the case of the SWAT team here invasion of the home of mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Maryland.”