Actually, nothing funny really happened on the way to the Forum - something funny happened AT the Forum. Funny as in ironic, not ha ha.

On Tuesday, August 21, the NAACP of Martinsville/Henry County in conjunction with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, held a Political Forum at Patrick Henry Community College. Local and statewide candidates were invited to participate and given the opportunity to answer questions posed to them by the NAACP/SCLC members. I attended this event in hopes of finally seeing Roscoe Reynolds answer some tough questions…or any questions, but that was not to be. Due to a “misunderstanding,” Senator Reynolds did not grace the Forum with his presence until almost an hour and a half late.

Roscoe read a prepared statement (off of yellow legal paper, no less) praising Martin Luther King, Jr. and acknowledging the passing of Oliver Hill, took no questions and sat in the crowd instead of the candidates’ table. If there was an apology for his tardiness made to our gracious hosts it must have been made privately. Even his campaign manager, Michael Points, was there a good thirty minutes before Roscoe. But this isn’t the funny part. This is:

Michael Points (and remember, funny = ironic, not ha ha) confronted Alton Foley, campaign manager extraordinaire for Roscoe’s challenger, Jeff Evans, in the hallway and accused him of launching a negative website - one linking Roscoe to homosexuals. Alton informed Michael that this was absolutely false AND offered to address everyone present at the Forum to denounce such an accusation if Michael Points would do the same. Michael Points, of course, declined.

I had recently learned that Roscoe Reynolds had hired Joe Stanley, of Yellow Dog Strategy, to help him with his campaign. When Jim Webb used Joe for his successful bid for the US Senate, I didn’t question his decision - Jim Webb was new to politics in the commonwealth and the internet was the new frontier. I did think it was strange for an incumbent, like Roscoe Reynolds, with twenty-two years in the legislature to require the services of Joe. Joe’s Yellow Dog logo, until recently, appeared on Roscoe’s website.

Reserving a website domain and re-directing that site to another site is a standard practice of Joe’s - he boasted about it in an article by the Roanoke Times. When Alton told me of his exchange with Michael, my impression was that IF such a negative website existed, it was probably created by Roscoe’s camp with Joe leading the charge. Typical. They would deny it and use it to muddy the waters - attempt to divert attention away from Roscoe’s lackluster performance. Typical.

Joe surprised me by going WAY beyond typical - yes, by his own admission, he did reserve a website - one in the name of the Old Dominion Blog Alliance (of which I am a proud member) and yes, he did redirect that site to another site BUT instead of linking to homosexuals, as Michael Points had suggested, he linked us to NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) - a group that endorses child rape. This was a new low for Joe and more importantly, a new low in Virginia politics.

Thankfully, Joe has removed the link which gives more publicity to the pedophiliac group and the site now shows his pitiful attempt to justify his previous actions. Have I mentioned that in addition to being Yellow Dog Strategy, Joe is also the chairman of the Franklin County Democratic committee? I didn’t? He is. Joe Stanley is the chairman of the Franklin County Democratic committee. Is this the type of behavior Franklin County Democrats expect? Condone? Condemn?

Removing Joe’s logo is a start but it’s a far cry from explaining what part Roscoe and his campaign played in the defamation of the ODBA. The silence is deafening.

Bradford B. Wiles, a graduate student at Virginia Tech wrote the following editorial in The Roanoke Times :

. . . We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: “You need to get out of the building.”

Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.

It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.

Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech’s student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.

I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.

First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.

Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.

Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech’s campus.

Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.

That feeling of helplessness has been difficult to reconcile because I knew I would have been safer with a proper means to defend myself.

I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, “I would feel safer if you had your gun.”

The policy that forbids students who are legally licensed to carry in Virginia needs to be changed.

I am qualified and capable of carrying a concealed handgun and urge you to work with me to allow my most basic right of self-defense, and eliminate my entrusting my safety and the safety of my classmates to the government.

This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.

The event described by Mr. Wiles did not occur last WEEK. It occurred last AUGUST. His editorial was published on AUGUST 31, 2006!

Yes, Mr. Wiles, it is time that your university and your state allow you to take responsibility for your safety. Past time.

or, “Everything I think I know about the transportation bill, I learned from Barnie Day.”

Barnie’s back and once again applying his eloquent prose regarding the transportation bill. While Brian Kirwin uses pie charts and Del. Albo uses toy blocks to demonstrate the (in)significance of 1% in a general fund budget of $17.3 billion, Barnie simplifies it like this: “This bill will have as much impact on transportation in Virginia as a wad of spit would in the Atlantic.”

More pearls from Barnie: “Probably 75 percent of Virginians don’t even know the legislature has been in session — and of those who do, the majority don’t care.”

Personal favorite pearl:

“These Northern Virginia poobahs get elected by running against the state, giving away the store recruiting all the growth and congestion they can lay hands on, and by approving subdivisions helter-skelter and around the clock. Then they say to Richmond, “We’ve got a problem. You’ve got to fix it. Pave us out of congestion.”

The reality is they’ve got all the tools they need to straighten out their own messes — all they need except the courage to use them.”

The bottom line on the transportation bill (as well as a lot of cockfighting type chaff) may best be summarized by:

“. . . we’ve got to get transportation off the table for now. It’s blocking a lot of other important stuff, like 40,000 additional kids coming into our higher education system — 40,000 kids with no place to sit.”

That bear never stood a chance.

The Roanoke Times is reporting that yes, indeed, Ward’s been chosen to lead the Democrats (tell it to the Times) on the last day of the GA session:

In a move that signals a change in direction and tactics, Democrats in the House of Delegates ousted Del. Frank Hall of Richmond as the minority leader this morning and installed Del. Ward Armstrong of Henry County as his replacement.

“The parties are kind of like flying buttresses on a building,” Armstrong said. “The building falls down unless we press hard against one another, and that’s what I’m to do on the floor, to press very hard and provide an alternative to their [Republican] proposals.”

Armstrong said his new duties will require personal and professional sacrifices that, among other things, will affect his Henry County law practice.

“It is going to be a sacrifice from a professional standpoint, but I don’t go into this with my eyes closed,” he said. “That was certainly something we discussed but I pledged to do what is necessary to put this caucus first.”

Sacrifice? Oh, stop it Ward. You had me at “flying buttresses.”

. . . does not constitute an emergency on my part. I believe I read that on my eighth-grade math teacher’s coffee mug. That sentiment permeates my skull as I wade through the various news items and articles on blogs and newspapers regarding the transportation debates and debacles. A lack of planning on the parts of other areas of the Commonwealth *cough* Tidewater, NOVA *cough* does not constitute an emergency or “crisis” on my part.

I’ve often lived in areas where I had to commute more than thirty or forty minutes to get to school or to work. It wasn’t a crisis, it was a choice. If the choice is made to continue funding new roads, new development is sure to follow and then we’re back where we started.

For the rest of us to have to pay, whether it be in the form of higher fees, an added tax or through the reduction of our general fund is unjust. It makes the rest of us enablers and further leads to the “New Jerseyfication” of our state. Let’s stop feeding the beast and I bet the beast will stop growing.

Another coffee mug philosophy I read was, “Bad sex is better than no sex!” Does the same hold true for bad bills? Will the Republicans rather be responsible for a bad bill than no bill? Stay tuned as the General Assembly turns . . .