After a somewhat bumpy four year run, I’m pulling the plug on 750 Volts. This, however, is not a farewell. I’ve been more or less missing in action for a while, so it’s time to tell you why.
I’m teaming up with Aimee Fausser and Johnny Camacho to [...]
With less than a year left until 2009’s legislative elections (what’s an off year?), Barack Obama’s seismic victory in Virginia leaves many House Republicans quaking in their boots.
After all, according to Dave Albo, the state’s been flooded with food stamp recipients, which are apparently Democrats. His district voted 57% [...]
Campaigns are won with trench warfare (commonly known as the ground game) and air support (ads and media). What’s unique about political marketing is that unlike, say, selling blenders, you can get a horde of like-minded volunteers who will give up their precious free time to talk to hostile voters [...]
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
This is the story of a Republican district gone wrong. This is the story of Virginia’s 10th [...]
Earlier today, John McCain sent senior adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer on MSNBC, where she was asked about Virginia. In fit of pique, Pfotenhauer assailed Northern Virginia where John McCain’s campaign headquarters are located, and spoke of “the rest of the state, ‘real Virginia.” Given a chance to dig herself out of [...]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed today at 8,579.19, its lowest level since May 7, 2003. That means when the Dow Jones was last at this level, I was in sixth grade. That’s me, bottom row, second from left.
Do you feel screwed now?
2003 was when [...]
With barely days to go until the voter registration deadline for what promises to be a record-breaking year, thousands of voter registration and absentee ballot form pile up on registrar desks. However, the spike in voter registration has not been equally distributed statewide. Unsurprisingly, fast-growing localities [...]
Back in July, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, not known for secular humanism, ruled that public prayers at a Fredericksburg City Council meeting was government speech, and were required to be non-denominational. After consulting with the office of Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, also not known for secular [...]
The first qualification of anyone who wishes to be a member of Congress is to know where their district begins and ends. Physically.
I snickered as I was driving through a subdivision of White Oaks precinct in Burke, which is in the heart of Virginia’s 11th [...]
Joined by a pair of students from West Springfield ditching class for the day (I fully support skipping AP Government to see Live Government), I trekked up to Sterling’s Claude Moore Park this morning to hear Joe Biden at a “Women for Obama Rally.” Granted, I’m not a woman, but [...]
I haven’t turned off C-SPAN yet, and the normally news-free convention roll call came to Tennessee.
The Tennessee delegation casts its 43 votes for “George S. McCain.”
Oops.
[...]The confetti has settled. The protesters are gone. Denver has emptied out and all is back to normal–but my view of politics has changed.
After four days on the floor at the Democratic National Convention, I was simultaneously awestruck and exhausted. As a delegation page, I helped pass out signs and [...]
I’ve been selected as a page for the Virginia delegation, so I will be covering the convention in Denver. Watch here for updates, and watch my flickr photostream for the latest.
[...]The peculiar presidential campaign of 2008 took another turn for the surreal as John McCain’s campaign essentially conceded to Barack Obama that he was, indeed, loved by millions of people–and tried to convince us that was a bad thing, airing television ads that spent the first ten or so seconds [...]
Because I did so well last time I issued predictions…
John McCain will select Willard Mitt Romney. Romney and McCain may hate each others guts, but like Kennedy and Johnson, who also did not get along, this will be a marriage of political necessity. He might be a Mormon, but [...]
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim announced that he plans to repeal the anti-swearing ordinance put down by the City of Norfolk because it, alas, violates the constitution. Hallelujah!
I’m looking at you, Virginia Beach, which bans swearing along Atlantic Areas and beachfront areas. You’ve been warned. You’ve been &$!#(!* warned.
[...]In a major blow to the Warner for Senate campaign in Virginia, the latest Rasmussen poll shows Mark Warner falling below 60 as Gilmore surges 1 point. RUMORS SWIRL ABOUT HIGH-LEVEL SACKINGS IN WARNER CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP. How could Democrats let this happen?! Warner may be on his way to an [...]
It seems that the Republican Party of Virginia has a new logo, pictured at left. It’s not a terrible piece of design work–in fact, they’ve taken the creative liberty of setting the clock back to 10,000 years ago before the formation of the [...]
I will be at the Netroots Nation conference this weekend in Austin, Texas, and will be part of a panel entitled “Politically Active Youth on Political Participation and Civic Education: What They Have to Teach Us” on Friday the 18th from 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM. I will appear [...]
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Fairfax County’s academy for Asian-Americans talented smart folk, has announced that they will be changing this year’s admissions test by shrinking the verbal section.
I didn’t get into TJ. The verbal section was my only hope, and after scores came back [...]
From People For the American Way*:
*Full disclosure: I’m a summer intern there, and this was one of my assignments. Someone inside PFAW is probably clipping this post right now for monitoring.
[...]
You might not have noticed the inexorable increase in crowding on your train ride home every day, but 20 of the 25 highest ridership days in the history of Metro have occurred since April, with 854,638 passengers breaking the all-time record on July 11th. [...]
In politics, action is news. So is the absence of action.
In a statement today, Senator Jim Webb took himself out of Vice Presidential speculation, with a rather firm, ” I have worked hard to deliver upon that commitment, and I am convinced that my efforts and talents toward those ends [...]
With my stint at the Byrne for Congress campaign over, this blog is now returning to regularly scheduled programming. I write to you live from the Virginia Democrats State Convention. I will let you know if there’s a good floor fight.
Hampton, VA–
Thousands of Virginia Democrats have gathered in sunny Hampton, [...]
“The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.” -Senator Ted Kennedy
That was Ted Kennedy speaking on a landmark piece of immigration [...]
Fairfax County and Fairfax City, Virginia, affluent suburbs of Washington, DC, boast some of the highest life expectancies in the nation, ranking 17th out of 3,150 localities. A baby born in Fairfax in 1999 can expect to see 80.89 years. Fairfax’s neighbor to the north, Montgomery County, Maryland, ties for [...]
Honestly, I shouldn’t even be wasting electrons on Jim Gilmore. We have dozens of mildly competitive races across the country where a candidate does not have a 21 to 1 cash-on-hand advantage. That is, for every dollar Jim Gilmore is clutching, Mark Warner has $21.06. The ratio [...]
Everyone hates drunk drivers, we know that. However, I couldn’t help but to chuckle at this item in the Fairfax Times.
During the late evening of April 12 and early morning of April 13, officers from the West Springfield District Station conducted a sobriety checkpoint, issuing four traffic summonses for [...]
Yesterday was the annual Shad Planking in the Southside town of Wakefield. Virginia’s biggest political tradition brings statewide Democrats and Republicans together to eat, drink, and be merry. The tradition revolves around shad, a fish that is eaten by most in the crowd once a year, nailed to boards and [...]
I declare this year’s electoral map thoroughly scrambled.
In a generic party matchup, Democrat versus Republican, we would see the same fight from the last two cycles repeated–pitched battles over small groups of voters in a handful of states. This year, however, both parties have managed to nominate map-scramblers (okay, I [...]
Posting’s been light recently (I do occasionally tend to schoolwork), but if you’re not doing anything tomorrow, I will be presenting at the Virginia Collegiate Honors Council conference at Hampton University tomorrow, Saturday the 12th at 1:30 PM (in the Student Center Meeting Room). I will be giving a [...]
Is anyone really baffled as to why young voters don’t turn out? Might be because other voters told them not to. Jim Joseph, chairman of the Williamsburg “Neighborhood Council”, eviscerated the newly-minted voters at William and Mary for having the temerity to field one candidate for the May 6 [...]
Florida teenagers (that is, Florida, the state that just recently put evolution in its curriculum…as a theory) are under the impression that pregnancy is prevented through drinking bleach and Mountain Dew. They have a point, though–drink enough bleach, and your uterus becomes completely inoperable (as does the rest [...]
Its April 2nd, and the news that Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) announced for Attorney General in 2009 is now confirmed to not actually be an April Fool’s hoax (though many wish it was). Cuccinelli, the presumptive nominee as we here at 750 Volts said back in the winter, is [...]
While Help Save Manassas and company might be doing their best to try to scare off illegal immigrant laborers, that’s only half the issue. In areas where Americans simply won’t do the jobs, employers face either praying that they will secure enough work visas to import workers–or turn to illegal [...]
The Supreme Court is taking up a case from North Carolina which challenges Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision that mandates the creation of majority-minority districts. Bartlett v. North Carolina has the potential to change the political map for decades due to [...]
“I am a member of no organized party. I am a Democrat.” -Will Rogers
The Democrats have had a recent history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. A byzantine nominating process that leaves so many openings for voters to feel cheated that even Karl Rove wouldn’t be able to [...]
At least 1 in 4 teenage girls have an STD, according to a new CDC study. That translates into about 3 million girls. Good job, abstinence-only education, for making the world a safer place! Rarely have I seen the withholding of information be positive, especially in the context of [...]
Well, Dave Albo has learned his lesson, telling the Washington Post that “you can’t fight the internet.” He’s only half right, though–you can’t fight angry constituents, the internet just makes you an easier target.
Kentucky lawmakers are not as appreciative of the spirit of free [...]
It’s hard to give too much actual significance to a special election victory in a nominally Republican seat. While it may have few immediate political ramifications (one seat extra in Congress, and Democrats have another vulnerable seat to defend in a few months), the symbolic meaning is huge. Softspoken nuclear [...]
750 Volts will be out on spring break until Monday. To Florida!
[...]“If you watched 24 hours of straight porn, it loses its impact.” -Stanton Commonwealth Attorney Ray Robertson (source)
What a strange state that I live in.
The filing deadline for town council and mayor in Dendron, a small town in Surry, Virginia, came and went–and everyone forgot to file for [...]
Earlier in the General Assembly session, Delegate Brian Moran (D-Alexandria) sponsored a bill, Alicia’s Law (HB1189), that would have appropriated $32 million towards catching the worst child pornography offenders. Alicia’s Law, named for Alicia Kozkeiwicz, who at the age of 13 was abducted from her home and transported to [...]
After narrowly winning re-election by 101 votes over challenger Janet Oleszek (D), Sen. Ken “Landslide” Cuccinelli (R-Centreville) has thrown out a not-so-subtle indication that he is seriously considering running for Attorney General in 2009. Cuccinelli intends to gather with conservative friends and supporters on Monday in Richmond (as he is [...]
With over a year to go until the 2009 elections, there is already some 
