Thursday, March 16, 2023

Weekly Wrap-Up with Congressman Byron Donalds

Posted by at

Virginia, Your Voter Guide is Ready!

Special Election Voter Guide
for Virginia Senate District 9

 

The voter guide for the special election in Virginia Senate District 9 is ready.  Early voting begins March 18 and continues through March 25, 2023. 

 

Election Day is Tuesday, March 28, 2023. 

 

Virginia's 9th Senate District includes parts of the city of Richmond, Hanover County and Henrico County, and all of Charles City County.

Before you go to the polls, be sure to compare candidates using iVoterGuide.  

 

Polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Election Day.  To find your polling location, please click here.

Posted by at

IRLI, D.C. Candidate for Mayor Sue to Stop D.C. Alien Voting Law

March 14, 2023


New law weakens the votes of American citizens in our nation's capital

WASHINGTON—Today, a District of Columbia law allowing aliens—including illegal aliens and even foreign diplomats—who reside in the city to vote in municipal elections went into effect. Simultaneously, IRLI, representing Stacia Hall, the Republican candidate for D.C. mayor in 2022, and also six other U.S. citizen D.C. voters, brought suit to strike down the law. 

 

The suit points out that the extension of the vote from U.S. citizens to aliens automatically dilutes the votes of U.S. citizens. Such vote dilution based on citizenship status violates the fundamental constitutional right to vote of the plaintiffs, and denies them the equal protection of the law, if that dilution lacks an adequate justification.

 

No justification for this law can stand against the sovereign interest that all American citizens have in the democratic self-government of their country. As the Supreme Court has held repeatedly, the body politic of this nation consists of its citizens, and the right to govern is "reserved" to them. Voting, as the Court has repeatedly recognized, is at the foundation of this right to citizen self-government.

 

"This law—and others like it that are popping up around the country—is a direct attack on American self-government," said Christopher Hajec, IRLI's director of litigation. "The proponents of this law claim it gives citizens of foreign nations a 'voice' in the affairs of the city they reside in. But they already have a voice, protected by the First Amendment. They are free to speak, write, attend council meetings, and so on. This law doesn't just give foreign citizens a voice in our country's affairs, it gives them voting power that politicians inevitably will have to respond to. That transfer of power flies in the face of the clear right of the American people to govern themselves."

 

"The sovereign of this democratic nation is the people, U.S. citizens," said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. "When their power is eroded, our nation begins to lose its independence. And that erosion will escalate. If laws like this are not struck down, next there will be calls in many states to allow aliens to vote in statewide and even federal elections. We hope the court sees how at variance with the Constitution this law is, and strikes it down to protect our American democracy."

 

The case is Hall, et al., v. DC Board of Elections.

Posted by at

April 4! LG Earle-Sears & Ambassador Brownback!

Posted by at

RSVP | Webinar | No Drill: The CCP is Preparing for a Shooting War



Posted by at

The 3rd Annual RPV Skeet Shoot



Posted by at

Mark Peake Announces Run for 8th Senate District

Today Mark Peake announced his re-election campaign to the Virginia Senate.

Peake stated: "I want to thank Senator Newman for his years of service to our community.  He has been an incredible presence in the Virginia Senate and will be sorely missed."

"It has been one of the great honors of my life to serve my constituents in Richmond, pass meaningful conservative policies, and cut taxes on working families," said Peake. "I am running for re-election to continue to be the ally that Governor Youngkin needs to pass his conservative agenda."

"I will continue to fight for more freedom and less government. I will continue to pursue a legislative agenda that supports the Constitution and our individual freedoms and opportunities. I am a strong defender of the right to life, the 2nd Amendment and election integrity. I believe that a strong education system empowers all of our residents to achieve the American dream through hard work and dedication."

Mark Peake has served in the Senate since 2017, the newly drawn 8th District which includes all of Bedford and Campbell counties, and all of the city of Lynchburg. Contribute to Mark Peake's campaign using the button below:
Posted by at

Boots & Beer with Bryce - with special guest Mike Webert!




Block 4th
Posted by at

The Family Foundation: Show Your Support for Strong History Standards in Schools

Victoria Cobb, President

Monday, March 13, 2023

 

In January, Governor Youngkin's administration released its revised History and Social Science Standards of Learning, which offer a robust understanding of Virginia's history, and entail a more complete story about how the past – both the good and the bad - has shaped Virginia and our country.

 

Contrary to the teachers' union and the ideological Left's false characterizations of these standards as racist, factually incorrect, and politically generated, Virginia's Board of Education purposefully included input from representatives of the African American Advisory Board, the African American History Education Commission, the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium, Hampton Roads Black Caucus, the Jewish community, Virginia museums, and more. These standards are some of the strongest in the nation. 

 

Beginning this week there will be six Board of Education public hearings held around the state to present the revised standards to the public and allow the public to provide feedback, with two members of the Board of Education and one Department of Education representative in attendance.

 

Please consider attending one of these hearings listed below to demonstrate your support for history and social science standards that do not bow to woke agendas and inaccurate historical accounts.

 

Monday, March 20, 2023 

Southwest Higher Education Center

1 Partnership Circle, Abingdon

 

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Robert Russa Moton Museum

900 Griffin Blvd, Farmville 

 

There are two ways you can provide public comment:

  1. Attend one of the hearings listed above and provide public testimony.  Registration of speakers begins at 6:30 PM, and the hearings begin at 7 PM. Speakers will have three minutes to speak and are asked to bring written copies of their comments.

  2. If you are unable to attend a hearing and speak in person, you may submit a written comment by clicking here.

Virginia must have exceptional history and social science standards of learning if Virginians want to cultivate strong leaders with good character and a clearer understanding of our founding principles.

Posted by at

Congressman Bob Good: We’re putting parents back in charge!

We made history earlier this year in the 118th Congress with the Speaker battle and the new rules for how Congress will operate, and this has given us the opportunity to make transformational change for the country. I pledge to continue to keep my promises and to fight for you.


I've continued to take a strong stand for parental rights in education, and my five amendments to strengthen the Parent's Bill of Rights recently passed the Committee on Education & Workforce.


Every parent should be able to access and make copies of what is being taught in their child's school without having to pay unreasonable or exorbitant costs. The Freedom of Information Act makes things accessible, but the cost of the information searches have often been inflated in an effort to punish or suppress parental access. With my amendments, schools can't charge parents excessive fees for viewing curriculum, or prohibit them from making copies.


Every parent should be able to make health decisions for their children. With my amendments, schools can't act on behalf of parents for vaccine approval, and parents must be notified if their child expresses gender dysphoria. No more keeping parents in the dark about the mental or physical health of their children.


So many stories have been shared across the nation from parents who have been targeted for asking questions and pushing back against school policies they consider divisive, harmful, or anti-American. I'm working to put parents first, and my amendments will keep the Biden Administration from targeting parents who speak out and stand up for their children.


I didn't run for Congress to make friends in Washington. I ran to fight for the people of the 5th District of Virginia.


We're almost to the end of the first quarter, and I need your help reaching my fundraising goal to ensure I have the resources to continue to represent, serve, and fight for you. There are many well-funded anti-family, anti-American, special interests who don't like what I am doing for you. It is only with your help that I can continue in the battle.

Posted by at

Updates from Virginia Tea Party



This is your opportunity to learn about The Academy, hear a legislative update, and have questions answered by your Delegate and Philip Van Cleave, VCDL President and hear from Nelson Velez on  how you can get involved with our grassroots youth efforts and educating voters on Second Amendment Issues.

 

Meet Britton & Al and find out how you can get involved and support our NEW YOUTH PROGRAM.

 

VCDL-A PROGRAM HAS FOUR COMPONETS:

  • Firearm Education (Concealed Carry, Self Defense)
  • Civics Education (Legislative Process, Internships)
  • 2nd Amendment Voter Outreach
  • Marksmanship Competition
Posted by at

Tune in Tomorrow


Kerry McDonald will chat with John on the topic of Encouraging Education Entrepreneurship. We're looking forward to learning more from Kerry at our Education Summit on March 25 at the Va. Crossings Hotel and Conference Center.

So tune in Friday morning at 7:30am to hear John and Kerry and then be sure to register to attend the conference!

Your Middle Resolution Team

P.S. Need a hotel room to stay the night? You can stay at the Virginia Crossings Hotel & Conference Center.

Register for the Second Annual Virginia Education Summit

Posted by at

EMET Offers Its Profound Gratitude to US Senator James E. Risch and 14 other Senators for Letter on Antisemitism in our Nation’s Federally Funded Middle Eastern Studies Programs to the Department of Education

March 14, 2023

(March 14, 2023, Washington, DC) - EMET Offers Its Profound Gratitude to US Senator James E. Risch and 14 other Senators for their Letter on Antisemitism in our Nation's Federally Funded Middle Eastern Studies Programs to the Department of Education

EMET offers its sincere and profound gratitude to Sen. James E. Risch (R-ID) and his 14 colleagues on their letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona regarding the significant roles anti-Israeli sentiment and antisemitism play in our nation's Middle Eastern Studies programs, federally funded by Title VI of the Higher Education Act.

The Senators who signed this letter are: Mike Crapo (R-ID), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tedd Budd (R-NC), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), John Cornyn (R-TX), Cynthia M. Lummis (R-WY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Braun (R-IN), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Hoeven (R-ND), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).

In 2008, EMET successfully worked with the US Congress to amend Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which offers federal grants to universities for area studies programs. The amendments required that in order to get federal funding our nation's universities offer programs that offer "differ perspectives and a wide range of viewpoints".

EMET subsequently, together with representatives from the Brandeis Center and the Amcha Initiative met with the Department of Education to formulate certain questions that the universities would have to respond to, in order to indicate that they are meeting these legislatively mandated requirements. Shockingly, it has come to our attention that these questions are not even scored when reviewing the universities' grant applications for federal funding.

Title VI Area Studies programs are supposed to be able to provide the United States with a cadre of talented, well-educated language and cultural affairs graduates who would go on to serve in our nation's national security and defense interests. Unfortunately, our nation's Middle East Studies programs have become hotbeds of paltry propaganda and deeply entrenched anti-Israel biases; and this has given intellectual validation to the rising tide of antisemitism within the United States.

Increasingly, Jewish and Zionist college students find themselves facing an increasingly hostile and discriminatory environment. The hostility almost always targets Israel, the only Jewish state in the world. While critiques of certain policies of the state of Israel are not antisemitic, this obsessive scrutiny and negative focus may well cross the line into antisemitism, and frequently does, according to the definition of antisemitism laid out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition.

Many professors have gone so far as to unfairly target Jewish students in a highly personal and discriminatory fashion. These obsessions even include what may be violations of US anti-terrorism law through hosting events featuring convicted Palestinian terrorists. This increasing wave of antisemitism is leaving many Jewish students feeling helpless and unsafe with no protection from college administrators. "Taxpayer dollars should not fund antisemitism on college campuses, and Jewish and pro-Israel students should not feel afraid for being Jewish and expressing support for Israel," the members wrote.

The letter seeks a response from the Department of Education, no later than April 28th, 2023, to the following questions:

1. To what extent have college and university programs in the United States used federal funds on speakers and programs that meet the IHRA working definition of antisemitism over the last decade? If the Department of Education does not know because you are not sufficiently reviewing grantee reports on HEA Title VI activities, why is the Department not enforcing the law?

2. Has the Department of Education ever evaluated applicants' viewpoint-diversity statements? If so, when did it stop evaluating those statements What was the reasoning for that decision?

3. Does the Department of Education understand its failure to evaluate viewpoint-diversity statements sends an unmistakable signal that it does not place importance on this issue? If the Department doesn't even evaluate these statements, how can the Department differentiate between those applicants who are making sincere efforts to address this problem and those who are not?

4. Please outline the Department of Education's plan for ensuring programs and professors on college and university campuses receiving HEA Title VI funding are in compliance with federal requirements requiring diverse perspectives.

5. What is your best estimate of how many colleges and universities across the U.S. have become unsafe for Jewish students? How can the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and other offices ensure Jewish students have demonstrated reasons to feel safe on campus?

Says Sarah Stern, EMET Founder and President, "At a time when antisemitism is reaching unprecedented heights in the United States, we, at EMET, wholeheartedly endorse this letter. We have long held the belief that the university holds a critically important place in the attitudes of future American thought-leaders and is the incubator and shaper of the ideas and values that permeate throughout the United States. For far too long, our nation's Middle East Studies programs have been hotbeds of anti-Israelism, which tends to easily morph itself into antisemitism. This situation has been festering for decades and is now manifesting itself throughout many various institutional and societal domains in American society, where Jews are feeling attacked and discriminated against. Our American Jewish college students have long been on the front lines. We at EMET remain profoundly grateful to Senator James Risch and 14 of his Senate Colleagues for this exceedingly important letter."

Posted by at

Sunday, March 5, 2023

How NumbersUSA rates these three on Immigration Issues



Posted by at






Posted by at

Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy: Your March 5th Sunday Sumary

Summarizing the 2023 General Assembly Session:

Bills Passed and Failed: Here

Legislator "Batting Averages": Here

Delegate Turnover: Here

Senate Turnover: Here

Number of General Assembly retirements so far: 21

Number of Years of Service: 363

What adversaries really think about each other: Here

 

Meanwhile …

 

1.) The General Assembly may not have finished the budget, but they did pass a deal on Dominion Energy's profit margin and to take regulation of the company out of the hands of a politically-influenced legislature. In case you missed it, Senior Fellow Steve Haner offered his take on the subject last Sunday (here).  Expect the return of real oversight, but not an immediate rate reduction. But much depends on whether the legislature appoints State Corporation Commissioners in the reconvened April session (here).

 

2.) Dominion, of course, has been at the forefront of supporting the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which seeks to end the use of fossil fuels in favor of wind and solar. This will, of course, put increased demand and stress on the electric grid as Virginians are forced to abandon gas-powered vehicles in favor of more electric vehicles. Aside from the likelihood of California-style state-ordered electric reductions (here) and grid collapse (here), the challenges of electric vehicles are being underscored in numerous reports, from ABCNews (here), to Motor Trend magazine (here) and The New York Times (here). So, too is the challenge of just plugging the grid in (here). Undeterred, Senate Democrats repealed the law requiring all new vehicle sales to become 100 percent electric by 2035.

 

3.) And, increasingly, localities are questioning the extent to which they want their farmland and scenic views covered by solar panels (here, here, here, here, and here). 

 

4.) Bluntly, the math doesn't work, and we suspect green advocates are deficient in math instruction that emphasizes science-based learning. Virginia will soon consider new math Standards of Learning, and we set our new Visiting Fellow Rick Nelson, former president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, to work on exposing the creeping use of Common Core instruction and why Virginia's new standards must retain their science base (here).

 

5.) Math standards will be the next "Curriculum War" after History standards (still to be played out in Virginia). The Left consistently tries to claim it is offering "true history", but over at the American Enterprise Institute, Rick Hess debunks their claim as repackaging factually suspect polemics (here). Those polemics run hand in hand with utilization of critical race theory. In Newsweek, University of London Professor Eric Kaufmann points out that "nearly all American children encounter pseudoscientific concepts drawn from critical race and gender theory in school," even Republican and private school kids (here). His article is drawn from a report by the Manhattan Institute (here), concluding that such critical social justice concepts are having a significant impact in shifting children to the political left.

 

6.) Professor Kaufmann's conclusion is that only reform of curriculum content will stop the trend.  Another solution is to have more professors like the University of Virginia's James Ceaser (a former Jefferson Institute speaker). In Bacon's Rebellion, Jim Bacon reports here on Ceaser's "refusal to give the DEI Loyalty Oath."

 

7.) Issues will become worse as school systems increasingly permit monopoly union contracts through collective bargaining that is now rapidly spreading in Virginia. In Richmond, the Teamsters Union (self-described "champions of freight drivers and warehouse workers") will now represent Richmond principals in contract negotiations (here), which we're certain will place a real emphasis on education quality. In Loudoun County, the school board is heading down the road to collective bargaining in a process the Acting Superintendent says will cost $35 million and require 14 positions to supervise (here and here). And both Charlottesville City and neighboring Albemarle County are also closer to collective bargaining (here). 


8.) Why do elected officials support collective bargaining? Look north to Chicago (here), where the mayoral run-off will pit the former reformist school superintendent Paul Vallas against former union organizer Brandon Johnson. Johnson so far has received $2,489,154 from the teachers unions, $1.3 million from other unions and $200,000 from everybody else. With that kind of money from what amounts to the nation's "third party," aspirations run high with politicians of the Left.

 

9.) To further warn of the dangers of public employee collective bargaining, the Thomas Jefferson Institute will be hosting appearances by Philip Howard (a past and now future Jefferson Institute speaker), author of NOT Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions on April 25. You'll receive your invitation soon.

 

10.) Of course, we might understand it if principals in Norfolk wanted the burly Teamsters Union to represent them. There, Norfolk prosecutor Ramin Fatehi – one of many helped into office with George Soros' money (here) -- has fought "explicit and implicit bias, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the criminalization of poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and substance-use disorder." Actual crime? Not so much. Jim Bacon summarizes, with links to additional articles, here. The Left's response to crime is a loser. Even Joe Biden is getting the message (here).

 

11.)               The Roanoke College poll is out (here) and, as expected, there's great interest in the presidential "horserace" and personality rankings (here). Governor Glenn Youngkin's approval is up (57-35), Joe Biden's is down (38-56), in Virginia Youngkin beats Biden for president (54-39), Virginia is on the "right track" (55-39), the United States is on the "wrong track" (27-69), economic issues are the top (46 percent economy, inflation and jobs) and crime as an issue is rising (up five points since December). Few reported on the fact that only 17 percent have "a great deal" of confidence in public schools "to act in the best interests of children," and by 47-41 percent Virginians feel K-12 public schools are having a "negative effect on the way things are going in the country."

 

Finally … Only a few have served our nation at the highest levels in the legislative, executive and judicial branches … and one of them turns 100 on Thursday. For us, these moments define the best of politics.

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone.

 

And Happy Birthday, Senator!

 

Cordially,

Chris Braunlich

President & CEO

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)