The Commonwealth of Virginia's Ultimate Blog

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Mara Salvatrucha In Northern Virginia

Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known as MS-13, is a growing problem in Northern Virginia, which has become one of its two primary centers of activity here in the United States along with Los Angeles where it started back in the 1980s. It was founded by immigrants from El Salvador, fleeing from the violence of the civil war occurring there in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

This is an issue that our candidates for Attorney General need to address and provide solutions to. MS-13 is considered by the FBI probably the most dangerous gang in the United States. It consist of tens of thousands of members worldwide, including between 8,000 and 10,000 known within the borders of the United States. In our day and age of increased connectivity as a result of technology, gangs have become the new organized crime, what the mafia used to be. They still remain difficult to deal with due to a decentralized hierachy structure, though MS-13 seems to be trying to create a more hierarchial structure in order to be even more effective at doing what it does, which consists primarily of fighting gangland wars in DC and Northern Virginia.

This article in Newsweek explains the growing problem and is a fascinating look at something that most Virginians are not aware of, except for those who have experienced the brutality of MS-13. It needs to publicized, and it needs to be dealt with before it becomes even more of a problem than it already is. We don't need any more mutiliated bodies found on the banks of the Shenandoah River or shootouts in the streets of Northern Virginia neighborhoods.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Missionary Politics

Here is a fascinating article by a progressive Democrat that gives the responsibility for the resurgence of the right in American politics to the willingness of the Republican Party to recruit, to do the dirty work of going door to door, of evangelizing, and to be very strategic about building institutions that create new conservatives and bring one issue voters into the Republican fold.

The article consists of an aggressive exhortation by a Democrat to other Democrats to begin recruiting, to be missionaries of progressivism, as they call whatever it is that they believe these days.

Christopher Hayes writes: "And yet the improbable fact about missionary activity is that it works, regardless of the faith's specific dogma. Mormons are the fastest-growing church in the country. Evangelical protestant congregations make up 58 percent of all new churches in the United States. Globally, Islam continues to reach into new and unfamiliar lands, experiencing explosive growth in China. Religions that actively proselytize – Pentecostals, Mormons, Muslims – grow, almost without exception." This is fascinating and accurate analysis of the growth of primarily Charismatic and Pentecostal churches around world, to the exclusion of all other Christian denominations except for conservative leaning wings of the mainline denominations in Third World countries, not to mention fundamentalist branches within the United States, primarily in red states.

Also interesting is that Hayes slaps down the liberals who insist that the electorate is essentially progressive at heart and has only been deceived into voting conservative. He admits that the conservative movement has actually created a conservative majority, that people are at heart conservative, but he believes that this is a result of aggressive recruitment on the part of the armies of the right.

Hayes: "Common sense would suggest that the best explanation for this is that most voters are conservative and the Republicans are the conservative party. If this is true, we cannot continue to imagine there exists a slumbering progressive majority waiting to be awakened with the right trumpet call. We cannot cling to the fiction that conservatives have somehow hypnotized the electorate, hoodwinking them into voting for Republicans and reactionaries while leaving untouched their internal worldviews, which somehow remain fundamentally progressive. It is important that we stare directly into the sun on this point. The right has fundamentally reconstituted the way Americans view government, politics, policy and the public sphere. We need to change it back."

Tom Delay's Own Personal Tragedy

A recent story has revealed that Tom Delay went through a situation similar to that which the family of Terry Schiavo is dealing with currently. Delay's father was comatose and brain dead in 1988 and kept alive by machines and intravenous feeding tubes. It's a fascinating article that gives the reader a look into the mindset of Delay and helps one to understand his stance on the Schiavo issue.

There are, however, important differences between his father's situation and Schiavo's.

Dan Allen, Delay's spokesman, said that the critical difference was that "the only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him." There are however many other similarities, but none as important as that major distinction.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

A Life Redeemed

This story of a 26-year old single mother talking down a rapist and murderer by reading passages from A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and sharing the testimony of her redemption is slightly old news, but I heard it in church today and thought it was a spectacular story. So if you haven't read about it, I highly recommend it. The murderer had killed three people, including a judge, earlier that day after escaping from his guard while in the courthouse and had eluded police for hours in the largest manhut in Georgia history. He came to Ashley Smith's home randomly and held her hostage before her now famous talking down of him began.

Smith said: "I figured I was either going to die or not. So before I died, I was going to let him know that he was not capable of 'killing' me. All he could do was send me home."

It's amazing what an impact one redeemed life can have...

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Hypocritical Republicans?

In the fallout of the accusations that Republicans put out a memo stating their intention to manipulate the Schiavo tragedy for political purposes, it behooves those of us on the right to check our armor and think about these issues on a more introspective level than we have previously chosen to. There are definitely some serious questions about our own consistency with respect to end of life issues. President Bush himself passed a piece of "futility of care" legislation in 1999 that appears to have been responsible for the death of a 5 month old baby recently. Read about the story here. Somewhat disturbing.

Another well-written article on the Schiavo story comes from Ann Coulter, who can often be rather ascerbic. Her piece today though is fascinating.

If you want to read excellent analysis of whether or not the Republican memo about Schiavo is legitimate or a fraud, check out Hindrocket's typically exhaustive research on Powerline.

Sons of Liberty

As conservative bloggers in a state known for its resistance to tyranny going as far back as Bacon's Rebellion in 1675-1676 and later the Sons of Liberty of the American Revolution, we see ourselves as inheritors of that tradition of dissent against tyranny, in response to the overreaching arm of the government, of the all-powerful executive, today embodied in Governor Warner, the rich man in that house down in Richmond. We liken ourselves to the little rags that the Colonists were putting out in the 1760s and 1770s in response to oppressive, unjust, and unnecessary taxation such as the Stamp Act. Though our blogs are far more technologically proficient than the printing presses of the 1770s and we can respond to news with far more rapidity, we hope the end result is the same and that liberty is victorious as it tends to be in these parts of the world.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Kate Is a Wahoo

Addison, you know as well as I do that Kate was merely being polite to the poor impressionable Tech College Republicans, bless their little hearts. She roots for UVA sports over Tech sports always, and she realizes the vast superiority of a liberal arts education at the University of Virginia and its tradition for shaping and raising up leaders within the political ranks of the Old Dominion both now and throughout the history of our august Commonwealth. Kate is a Wahoo, period. She wasn't suggesting that all Wahoos are pompous. She was just playing to the usual stereotype. She merely happens to be humble and willing to admit it, as most of us graduates of the University of Virginia are always prepared to do.

Old Zach, do we know if Kate even applied to Virginia Tech? Obviously, if she did, she was accepted, but did she even take the time to apply?

Monday, March 21, 2005

More Schiavo Material

Here is a fascinating website of Kate Adamson who spoke at a pro-Terri Schiavo rally recently. She claims she was in the exact situation as Schiavo 10 years ago after a massive double brainstem stroke paralyzed her. Check out the pictures.

So many questions and issues involved: Should Congress be passing laws concerning an individual? What does this say about our federalist system?

The Left Admits Iraq Is No Vietnam

Juan Cole of Informed Comment fame is now admitting that Iraq is no Vietnam by any stretch of the imagination. Cole, a Middle East historian at the University of Michigan, is the preeminent leftist blogger on the situation in Iraq and has been quite skeptical of the war effort.

Cole writes: "In Communism, the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong had a universal ideology with a nationalist subtext that could hope to unite all the Vietnamese. . . In contrast, the Sunni Arab guerrillas in Iraq lack a unifying ideology. They are either Baathists (discredited in most of the country) or Salafis (a hard line Sunni ideology with no appeal to Shiites in the south or to most Kurds in the north), or Arab nationalists." Cole also points out that the insurgents have no major patron states, but still must insist that "there are other forms of quagmire. Nevertheless, it is important to hear these concessions coming from intelligent but strident leftists who can see that Iraq will not turn into a Vietnam, though they believe it may become a protracted struggle like in Northern Ireland or Sri Lanka or even perhaps Lebanon. Cole says that "long term, low-intensity ethnically-based conflicts just grind on for a decade or more, and then, if we are lucky, gradually fade at least somewhat away."

It's healthy to see some rational comments emanating from the Left. Good to see them coming around.

Baril Stands Up UVA Law

The Virginia Law Weekly at the University of Virginia School of Law came out in its March 18, 2005 edition with a revealing item of information on candidate Steve Baril saying "thumbs down to Virginia Attorney General candidate Steve Baril for twice bailing on Law School speaking commitments at the last minute." Word out of the Law School has it that he's bailed on both the Federalist Society and the UVA Law Republicans over the course of the last couple months.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Replacements for Gillen?

Lighthorse Harry has been gone to the Dominican Republic for about 9 days, so please accept my apologies for my absence. I also have an infected bursa sac due to injuring my knee while playing baseball with the Dominicans. Let's just say that the Dominican Republic doesn't exactly have a comparable medical infrastructure to the United States. Nor do they have a mail system or a postmaster general.

We haven't blogged about the firing of Pete Gillen as coach of the Wahoos, but it was about time. A great guy, but he couldn't get his talent to play or mature. Does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement? I'm thinking former Gillen assistant and amazing recruiter Bobby Gonzalez, who took Manhattan to the Big Dance last year, would be an excellent replacement.

Blogging Is Only for White Males?

Read this article from Newsweek columnist Steven Levy who seems to be very upset to discover that the majority of the elite bloggers are white males. Pretty interesting little piece.