Obama/Pelosi-"Care" Passes

The health-care power grab has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 220-215.

Please call your Senators and ask them to vote against Obama-"care". If you live in Virginia, your Senators are:

Jim Webb
(202) 224-4024

and

Mark Warner
(202) 224-2023

If you do not live in Virginia and do not know how to contact your Senators, please click here.

Obama/Pelosi-"Care" Vote Likely Today

In the wake of President George Bush XLIII's bail-out, more than 100 banks failed. In the wake of President Barack Obama's "stimulus" package, unemployment has climbed above 10 percent. And in response to fumbling overreaches like these, Americans on Tuesday capped off a year of tea parties, town halls, and rallies by voting against big government.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is having none of it. She is trying to push a vote on the bill to cede massive power over the health care system to our big, bloated, bumbling federal government today.

My fellow Americans, if you don't want your family's health care in big government's clumsy hands, those hands that have so strangled prosperity, please contact your Representatives and urge them to vote against Obama/Pelosi-"care".

Conservatism Wins!

Today's has been my favorite election since 1984, because conservatism had won even before the day had dawned.

When the GOP's anointed liberal dropped out of the special election in New York's 23rd "safe Republican" congressional district on Saturday, after badly trailing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, it was a clear victory for conservatism over the Party of Bush.

Here in Virginia, conservatism is winning its most important victory as Ken Cuccinelli defeats Steve Shannon in the race for Attorney General. The re-election of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is also good news.

Conservatism also played a role in the weirdest gubernatorial campaign in my memory. Creigh Deeds had won the Democratic nomination by positioning himself as the moderate-conservative alternative to two liberals. Then, bizarrely, in the general election campaign, he painted Bob McDonnell as a conservative, building much of his campaign on an effort to manufacture the former Attorney General's 20-year-old graduate thesis into some kind of Handmaid's Tale, while showing himself to be no opponent of government intrusiveness, refusing to reject the Obama-"care" public "option" and touting an endorsement from The Washington Post, a withering rag whose editors are so blinded by big-government ideology that they haven't grasped the fact that "new taxes" are not words that normal people like to read, especially in a grim economy. Is it any wonder that Governor-elect McDonnell is trouncing him?

The Republican top-ticket sweep in Virginia is, of course, very bad news for the Democrats. Indeed, as the Deeds campaign began to tank, Democrats became so desperate that they sent both President Barack Obama and DNC Chairman Tim Kaine to Virginia to campaign for him.

But combined with the much-merited slap across the face that New York conservatives delivered to the Republican Party, it's clear that the election of 2009 is much more than another swing of the pendulum.

This is not a Republican renaissance. This is a conservative renaissance. Americans are fed up with intrusive government and its arrogant, dangerous view of itself as their benefactor. And they are fed up with Republicans and Democrats alike who subscribe to the misguided notion that government is somehow the sponsor of prosperity. This disgust has been building for some time. It showed up in the reaction to the disastrously decided case of Kelo v. New London. It was clear in the "thumpin'" of 2006. And it exploded in the popular outrage at President George Bush XLIII's bank bail-out, his auto bail-out, President Obama's "stimulus" plan, and his health-"care" power grab--fueling unprecedented citizen backlash at tea parties, town-hall meetings, and the enormous 9/12 rally.

Big government, its pandering power-mongers, and their Mrs.-Danvers enablers in both parties are the big losers in the election of 2009.

Cry Witch!

The polished wood gleams in the glow of flickering candles. It's nighttime, and little moonlight breaks through the circular window panes in their cream-colored frames.

Several dozen visitors have gathered in the courtroom of Colonial Williamsburg's dull-red brick Capitol building to serve as the jury in a recreated trial of Grace Sherwood, the "Virginia witch". In the dimness, their 21st-century garb is slightly shrouded, and the atmosphere seems at least a little like 1706.

A midwife who sometimes sported pants, Mrs. Sherwood did not remarry after her husband's death in 1701. She was tried several times on charges like bewitching her neighbors' crops. Then in 1706, a local farmer named Luke Hill accused the 46-year-old of practicing witchcraft and thus causing his wife to miscarry. On July 10 of that year, Mrs. Sherwood's hands were tied, and she was thrown from a boat into the Lynnhaven River. Able to swim, Mrs. Sherwood untied her hands and rose to the surface--thus proving that she was a witch. (Drowning would have established her innocence.) Court records indicate that she spent seven or eight years in gaol as punishment.

Colonial Williamsburg's mock murder trial takes place after this water test. Because she's charged with a capital crime, the trial takes place in the Capitol, presided over by the Royal Governor. Her water test failure is presented as evidence of her guilt, as is the statement that her devil's marks (birthmarks) did not bleed when punctured and testimony that she never takes Communion. Mr. Hill testifies that, after Mrs. Sherwood visited his farm, his "pigs began to act peculiar-like and die".

Unfortunately for Mrs. Sherwood, defendants cannot be sworn, and anything she says in her own defense cannot be counted as evidence. On the other hand, there is no protection from self-incrimination. There is neither the presumption of innocence nor the recognition of the (derived) right to face one's accuser. When the prosecutor declares that Mrs. Hill, appearing as a witness, is "afraid to be in the same room as the witch", the Governor-judge directs Mrs. Sherwood not to look at Mrs. Hill and assures the witness that God will protect her.

Despite the fact that this trial mocked fundamental principles of modern Western justice, science, and common sense, Mrs. Sherwood was convicted 44-13 by the jury and sentenced to hang. (Your humble blogger was among the 13.) According to a CW guide, juries convict Mrs. Sherwood in about 80 percent of the mock trials. She is, however, entitled to appeal to the Governor.

In real life, history suggests that Mrs. Sherwood returned to her farm after serving her time in gaol and lived there until her death c. 1740. England's last law against witchcraft was repealed in 1951. On July 10, 2006, Governor Tim Kaine informally pardoned Mrs. Sherwood.

BREAKING: Scozzafava Out!

My friend Stacy McCain is reporting that Dede Scozzafava, the GOP's anointed liberal in the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district, has dropped out of the race! Poll after poll has recently shown Ms. Scozzafava badly trailing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. This is a stunning--and much-deserved--rebuke to the Party of Bush and a bright light in the conservative renaissance. Way to go, New York conservatives!!

"Take AIM" Today

In the wake of my speech to Accuracy In Academia's conservative university earlier this month, I'm slotted to chat about Slaying Leviathan on "Take AIM", the blogtalkradio program of AIA's parent organization, Accuracy In Media, this morning at 11:30 (EST). Please tune in!