I realize that not everyone has the obscene amount of free time that I do. And even those who do often don’t see the merit in watching television when they could spend that time doing other things, like reading books and having a social life. Such people are clearly depriving [...]
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
In the above video, Lawrence O’Donnell, guest-hosting “Hardball,” interviews Congressman John Culberson, who represents Texas’s 7th Congressional District. John Culberson is but one foot soldier in the army of ill-informed Neoconservative spin doctors currently making the [...]
I’ve been involved in the planning of this event to a very limited extent, but I can guarantee that it will be a lot of fun. The individuals handling the bulk of the logistics (members of the Highland County Democratic Committee) have been working extremely hard to [...]
Note: Movies are one of only a few things that I can claim to be truly passionate about (the other things being politics and Golden Corral’s yeast rolls). Every time I see a movie, I try to write something about it. In the past, I haven’t really published these feeble [...]
My last post on JohnnyCamacho.com, written back in December, had a certain ring of finality to it. Indeed, finality is what I was going for when I wrote that post. At the time, I had fully intended for that to be the last post I would ever write as a [...]
After more than two years of operating JohnnyCamacho.com, I am announcing my retirement as a solo blogger. I’m one semester away from completing my second year of college work. Academia has, for the most part, consumed my soul. I spend a large amount of my time on schoolwork, and I [...]
Count me among those Democratic activists fuming over the coddling of Joseph Lieberman by the Senate Democratic Caucus today. Joe Lieberman is in the high position of power that he is today (chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) because of his affiliation with the majority [...]
Rather than listing the dozens of reasons why I’ve not posted anything here on JohnnyCamacho.com for over 2 months, I have decided that it would be far better to simply get right back into the swing of things. Like any other Liberal-minded person in Virginia, I was mostly mesmerized and [...]
All of the following photos were taken with my Canon HG10 (the Swiss Army knife of my technology arsenal) on Wednesday and Thursday night of the convention.
The following photo slideshow contains all of the pictures snapped in Denver so far. The majority were taken by me, and the remainder were taken by fellow Think Youth blogger, Dan Solis. I’m quite proud of some of these photos which is why I’m sharing them here. For most [...]
Here are the full remarks of Barack Obama and Joe Biden from today’s rally in Springfield, IL. The rally marked the first time that Sens. Obama and Biden appeared together as running mates, and the speeches are truly electrifying.
I’m currently watching CNN, which was the first network to confirm that Senator Joe Biden will, in fact, be Barack Obama’s running mate. I will write more on this later. Right now, I shall just bask in my current state of euphoria.
[...]An article penned by David Brooks, called “Hoping It’s Biden,” just went up on the New York Times website. Brooks makes a very strong case for Joe Biden as VP, and the article was so well-written, I just had to post an excerpt here:
Even today, after serving for decades [...]
Will my longtime wish for an Obama/Biden ticket come true? The punditocracy is increasingly convinced that it will. We’ll soon see.
[...]Who, I ask, should be Obama’s VP?
Probably someone from the military.
He should have a résumé that’s pretty lengthy,
Or maybe it’d be better if he were a she.
How ’bout that Republican from the state of NE?
But two Senators on a ticket is far too risky.
A Governor’s [...]
I attended the Warner vs. Gilmore debate at The Homestead yesterday, and, I’ll be honest, it was predictable and a bit dry. Before I go into full detail, I’ll touch on some of the major elements of each candidate’s debate performance:
Warner: Gov. Warner emphasized his bipartisan record as Governor, and [...]
Here is actual video of Jim Gilmore’s speech at the Shad Planking back in April. I didn’t think it would actually make it onto the internet, given how poorly-received it was in person, but I just found it and decided it was worth posting:
It’s important to point out that, [...]
Below, you will find an assortment of photos from the 2008 Virginia Democratic Convention. Most of these were captured directly from my video footage of the event. Enjoy!
My name can now be added to the list of Virginians heading to Denver this August for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Many people whom I’ve had the honor of getting to know through my Democratic Party and “netroots” involvement will be going as delegates, and my friend, Kenton [...]
I recorded about an hour of video this past weekend at the the 2008 Virginia Democratic Convention. I’ve uploaded two speeches to YouTube so far, and they can be viewed below the fold. Both speeches took place at the Virginia Young Democrats breakfast event on Saturday morning.
The first was delivered [...]
Since we learned that Senator Barack Obama was the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, I’ve been racking my brain trying to settle on the perfect running mate for him this fall. The fact is that I nearly drove myself absolutely mad trying to do this, undoubtedly [...]
Author and Historian David McCullough was Boston College’s commencement speaker recently, and he had some outstanding advice for the graduates:
“Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation,” McCullough implored Boston College’s class of 2008 at commencement ceremonies Monday.
He said [...]
So far, today has been an absolutely extraordinary day for Senator Obama’s campaign, and, by extension, his supporters. As one of the Kool-Aid drinkers myself, I couldn’t be happier. I don’t know where to begin, but perhaps this news story is a good place to start:
I am pleased [...]
I’m currently watching CNN as the results from Indiana and North Carolina come in. Speaking of CNN, Wolf Blitzer still can’t say the word “project” properly, incorrectly pronouncing it “preject,” instead. But, I digress. As I’m writing this, Sen. Obama has been projected the winner in North Carolina and is [...]
I just read a very interesting article written by Joe Trippi, a senior adviser for John Edwards’ Presidential campaign. At one point, Trippi has this to say:
I didn’t tell him what I should have told him: That I had this feeling that if he stayed in the race he [...]
Gov. Mark Warner’s Senate campaign has released his full Shad Planking speech on Youtube. See the video below:
Curiously, video of Gov. Gilmore’s speech has yet to make it onto Youtube. This may have something to do with the fact that the speech was almost universally denounced by those who [...]
My second sidebar poll is now closed. The question was, “What should Democratic superdelegates do in the event that Clinton leads in the popular vote while Obama leads in elected delegates at the time of the convention?” Here is the vote breakdown:
Daily Whackjob has a new contributor: Me! I was invited a few days ago to write at their site, and I composed my introductory post today. Don’t worry, though, this blog isn’t going anywhere. I’ll still write original posts for this site and update it with the same frequency. [...]
While I hope to post a written recap of this year’s Shad Planking very soon, I will go ahead and post some of the better photos that I took at the event. They will be split into two posts. View the first batch in gallery form below the fold.
Note: Thanks [...]
The following quote was uttered at this month’s Bath County Board of Supervisors meeting by a supervisor whose name I shall not say:
[Health care’s] a need that’s not a need. It’s a necessity.
If I didn’t personally know who said this, I’d swear that Yogi Berra had been elected to [...]
I was in Richmond back in February as part of a group lobbying the budget-weary General Assembly on behalf of Virginia’s community college system. We basically acknowledged early on that no more money would be gotten; it was all a matter of trying to convince them to cut it by [...]
Following its reporting of the Bath County reassessment outrage, the Roanoke Times published an outstanding editorial calling for the abolition of the property tax system. The editorial uses Bath County’s dilemma to illustrate why the property tax is so problematic. Here’s an excerpt:
When real estate assessment rose by as much [...]
At the end of last night’s marathon Bath County board of supervisors meeting, which started at 7:00 P.M, and ran until 12:00 midnight, it came to light in a discussion that I had with Millboro supervisor, Carol Hardbarger, that she had started a brand new blog! Mrs. Hardbarger is an [...]
Over at Not Larry Sabato, Ben has revived the topic of political haircuts with the shocking revelation that Brian Moran’s regular hairstylist at “Bubbles Hair Salon” no longer works there. This, of course, resulted in a spirited discussion among readers of NLS, some of whom brought up the John [...]
The Roanoke Times’ front-page story in today’s edition was the Bath County taxpayer backlash that followed a recent property reassessment that, in many cases, reflected 3-year property value increases of as much as 1,000%. This is an issue that I’ve been watching closely for a while now. In fact, [...]
Apparently, my blog is to Barack Obama what Albania is to George W. Bush, which is to say friendly territory. Here are the results of my most recent sidebar poll:
The vast majority (85.7%) of my readers not only like Barack Obama, but they’re confident that he [...]
I had to scrape my jaw from the floor after reading this recent release from the Drew Richardson for Congress campaign:
It has been my privilege to be a candidate for the office of U.S.
Congress and to seek the Democratic nomination for that office in our
district. Nevertheless, it [...]
I arrived back in Bath County at around 4:00 P.M. today after having been in Blacksburg for the 2008 VAYD Convention all weekend. I’m writing a detailed recap of the event right now, but felt compelled to immediately express my gratitude to the VAYD, as well as the many individuals [...]
Christopher Dodd, in an interview with National Journal, spoke quite frankly about the state of the Democratic race for the presidency. In doing so, he took the words right out of my mouth:
Look, we’ve got five more months to go before the Democratic convention at the end of August and, [...]
1. Del. John O’Bannon’s bill (HB21) to criminalize Salvia Divinorum, a plant with psychoactive properties, was signed into law by Governor Kaine earlier this month. In fact, not only was Salvia criminalized; it was given the same legal status as Heroin, which is odd, considering that it’s neither lethal [...]
From the Augusta Free Press:
Sixth District Democratic Party Committee chair David Layman has died. Layman died of an apparent heart attack that he suffered at a committee meeting in Lexington Tuesday night.
Both Democratic Congressional candidates here in the Sixth have made statements. From Drew Richardson:
From the day that we [...]
The video above is an original production. It really requires no set-up, as it will explain itself. However, it’s worth noting that this video reveals a few things about me:
From the AP:
A Democrat maintained a solid lead Saturday in a special election to fill former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s seat in a contest closely watched because of the possibility the longtime district could change hands.
Democrat Bill Foster had a 53 percent to 47 percent lead over Republican businessman Jim [...]
Sam Rasoul, a Democrat looking to run against Bob Goodlatte in November, has penned a column stressing the importance of positive campaigning. Here’s a snippet:
Our grassroots movement over the past year is larger than any one election or than my candidacy alone. My values guide me to a commitment [...]
Someone presented me with a unique objective recently during a political discussion. They told me to take the best aspects of any individual political figures, past or present, and combine them into the “perfect” hypothetical presidential candidate. After giving it a great deal of thought, I realized that my ideal [...]
A while ago, I came across perhaps the best column I’ve ever read on the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It was published in the New York Times on February 24th, and was penned by Frank Rich. He absolutely hits the nail on the head on point [...]
The American Prospect has published a great article taking a look at some of the Democrats who have been suggested as likely VP choices. Lowell has posted a write-up on Jim Webb’s positive mention in the article. I, personally, was every bit as excited to [...]
Forget the 2004 Democratic National Convention, forget the Iowa JJ dinner, and forget “Yes, we can.” The speech above is the greatest of Obama’s career, and one of the best I’ve ever seen from a political figure.
h/t Zen from Daily Whackjob
[...]
Since Ralph Nader announced that he will once again run for President this morning, the blogosphere has been abuzz with negativity and outright hostility. Glade at Cobalt 6 is quite blunt in stating:
Ralph, you cost Al Gore Florida and the election. You sentenced us to 8 [...]
This is easily the most awkward moment in “Meet The Press’” 60-year history, and that includes every episode that Dick Cheney has ever been on.
[...]From Reuters:
HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.
Castro, 81, said in a statement to the country that he would [...]
The name Drew Richardson is one that I’ve heard thrown around for months in discussions about the current state of the Democratic Party’s attempts to select a candidate to challenge Bob Goodlatte in the Sixth Congressional District. Last night, I got an email that all but confirmed [...]
Sam Rasoul, Sixth District Congressional candidate, gave a nice speech on the topic of change vs. action at a reception event in Roanoke, VA. I think it speaks strongly to the concerns, fears, and hopes of average people everywhere in the country. You can watch it above.
[...]From The Shad Plank:
Here’s the list of lawmakers who have signed on with John McCain’s Virginia campaign:
Co-Chairs
Former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore
Delegate Chris Saxman
U.S Senator John WarnerSteering Committee
U.S. Representative Tom Davis
Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
Delegate Dave Albo
Delegate Bill Carrico
Delegate Tom Gear
[...]
The editorial board of the New York Times has officially endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Neither of the two endorsements surprised me at all, nor did the Times’ explanation for why they made them. Of the Democratic race, the editorial board had this to say:
As Democrats look [...]
The Commonwealth’s esteemed former Governor, James Stuart “Jim” Gilmore III (A.K.A. Jimmy Stuart), has received several high-profile endorsements in his quest for a seat in the United States Senate. The aforementioned endorsements come from the following Republican Senators:
Jeff Sessions (AL)
Wayne Allard (CO)
Mike Crapo (ID)
Chuck Grassley (IA)
Norm [...]
A Republican Congressional candidate in Texas’ ninth congressional district and former Sugar Land Mayor, Dean Hrabacek, has apparently sent out a mailer featuring his own head Photoshopped onto the body of a slimmer, suit-clad gentleman. Why the fake photo? Well, according to Hrbacek’s campaign manager, Mr. [...]
CNN has projected Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney the winners of today’s Nevada caucuses. Coming closely in second to Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama, with John Edwards in a distant third. That matches my predictions on a Think Youth Podcast I did last night. On the [...]
It was only recently that John Kerry snubbed John Edwards - his former running mate - by endorsing Barack Obama. Now, there is an interesting interview with Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin out, during which he weighs in on the Democrats in the race. He praises Clinton and Obama, [...]
Sam Rasoul, a Democrat in the race for the Sixth Congressional District seat currently held by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, is a class act. He’s a smart, passionate and capable candidate who has spent the better part of the last year traveling the Sixth District extensively and tirelessly advancing the Party [...]
I love a good political ad, and Al Franken hit a home run with this one. If Democrats all over the country speak to these same issues as powerfully as Al has done here, we’ll have another very good year.
[...]Del. Lionell Spruill of the 77th district has earned the title of comedy hero for the 2008 session of the General Assembly by introducing HB 1452. Take a look:
HOUSE BILL NO. 1452 Offered January 15, 2008 A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 10 of [...]
February 5th is Super Tuesday, and the media will maintain a bird’s eye view of the country throughout the day as 24 states collectively put an unofficial end to the presidential selection process by way of a huge electoral circus. However, the race that I’ll be watching like a [...]
Mitt Romney has been projected the winner in today’s Michigan primary, and Democrats everywhere can rejoice! McCain’s momentum has been temporarily stalled by tonight’s results, while Romney’s chances of being the Republican nominee are alive and well. Here’s hoping that Mitt emerges from the selection process as the victor, thus [...]
I love podcasting. I got into it in early 2007 and have enjoyed it ever since. I find the medium to be great for expression and conversation. When I started podcasting, Blog Talk Radio seemed like the logical service to use. It was free, easy to set up, and required [...]
A lot of news about the 2008 election recently:
1. Bill Richardson is out of the race for the White House. He has sent out an email making it official. The email is very nicely written. Here is a snippet:
It is with great pride, understanding and acceptance that I am [...]
I’ll preface this by saying that, at this point, I’m just trying to have a little bit of fun with the Iowa caucuses, since they’re going to turn out to be relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things, anyway. So, I now present to you my slightly irrational caucus [...]
Tonight, I did a podcast featuring input from Aimee Fausser, Jeff Pritchard and Vivian Paige. The show dealt mainly with the 2008 election, but ventured for a few moments into conversation about the 2009 gubernatorial race here in VA, leaving NY resident Jeff up a creek without [...]
At the end of my last podcast, I referenced an out-of-this-world podcasting event that I had planned with super special guests sure to blow your mind. Tonight, between the hours of 9 and 10, I will be doing what promises to a be a tour de force podcast, featuring the [...]
I was looking at some old posts here at the site, and it seems that many of them are nearly unreadable due to really annoying characters that have magically replaced all of the quotation marks and apostrophes. I don’t know when it happened, but it’s really tacky. So, my question [...]
Tonight, I will be doing a podcast and am honored to be joined by my guest, John Barnes. He’s an instructor of history, political science and sociology, and happens to be a lecturer extraordinaire. Now, while you all may be assuming that anyone in the field of education is completely [...]
I personally want to wish all of my readers a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah , blessed Festivus and so on. Whatever your holiday may be, have a good one. Tomorrow will mark another one of my famous low-key holiday celebrations here in the mountains. I’ve already compiled a list of [...]
This is just about the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Del. Dave Marsden has sent out holiday greetings featuring a photo of himself and Ben Tribbett (”favorite constituent and noted journalist”), presumably as an inside joke. I haven’t heard of this particular mailing making it into the hands [...]
The DPVA has put up a poll. You can go to it and vote for your favorite of the six candidates certified by the Democratic Part of Virginia to appear on the ballot in our Feb. 12 presidential primary. Last time I checked, Hillary Clinton was leading with Dennis [...]
The second of Joe Biden’s two Iowa ads just hit YouTube, and like the first, it is a simple production with a powerful message. With the Iowa caucuses being as unpredictable as they are, I remain hopeful, and, indeed, optimistic, that Joe Biden will wind up in at least the [...]
That’s an actual screencap from my Facebook news feed, and Facebook doesn’t lie! As you can see, Creigh Deeds is officially supporting himself for the Democratic nomination in the ‘09 Gubernatorial race. I don’t think anyone expected this at all. I, for one, [...]
Tonight at 7, I’ll be hosting another roundtable discussion on Blog Talk Radio. Here’s the show info:
Panelists James Martin of Raising Kaine, Aimee Fausser and Dan Geroe of Donkey with a Trunk, and Kenton Ngo of 750 Volts join me to talk about the Democratic Party’s potential [...]
Today, Creigh Deeds announced his intent to run for Governor in 2009. The guy who has managed to put my beloved county of Bath on the map now has a chance to take the reins of the entire Commonwealth and keep it moving forward. I’m thrilled to support his [...]
Here’s the Biden Campaign’s new ad, set to begin airing in Iowa tomorrow. The ad is called “Action,” and I think it’s great. There are no fancy graphics and no orchestral arrangements in the background; only Joe. I think this ad beautifully conveys what Biden has been trying to [...]
Today, when I checked the mail, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was among the recipients of Sen. Cuccinelli’s latest fundraising appeal. This quote basically sums up the letter:
As I rush you this critically urgent appeal, the Democratic Party of Virginia has their top lawyers scheming on [...]
In August, I took the Pew Research Center’s news IQ test and correctly answered nine out of nine questions correctly. The test has been updated since then, having been rewritten to include 12 new questions that deal with a wide variety of different topics. My score this time around [...]
Well, folks, it’s about that time of year when I officially get into the Christmas spirit and giddiness ensues. Kenton Ngo, Aimee Fausser and Dennis Kucinich all agreed to help me mark the beginning of the Christmas season by aiding in the production of a cheerful holiday message!
Now make [...]
I didn’t promote my most recent podcast prior to its airing, as it was really only official as of a couple hours before it went live. On a whim, I assembled the finest group of young academics that I could possibly muster on such short notice and we hit the [...]
Among those in the current field of Democrats vying to become the next President of the United States are:
I know I have a few readers on the other side of the aisle. For that reason, I try to avoid looking like a bleeding heart Liberal when I can avoid it. However, I can’t contain myself today. I’ve just learned that Dennis Kucinich will be in Charlottesville on December [...]
I would like to wish all of my readers a very happy Thanksgiving, be they out of town, putting up with boring, over-the-top, drunk, or otherwise unsavory relatives, or spending it at home, like myself, in a manner that’s a bit more low-key.
[...]Here’s a little video I made for YouTube. I hope you all enjoy it, and, most of all, I hope it opens some eyes and ears. Let me know in the comments if you have any trouble viewing it. That seemed to be an issue with my last video.
[...]
While I may have been slightly preoccupied on Election Day (see previous post), I did still make an attempt to follow several of the more fascinating local (everyone else has the GA races pretty well covered, I’d say) races around Bath County and in other parts of the state. Here [...]
As a couple of my commenters have already noticed, my run for the Bath County Board of Supervisors ended in a slightly disappointing defeat in this year’s election. After months of campaigning, election day came. For 12 hours, I stood outside of my district’s lone precinct in the frigid and [...]
Our local paper, The Recorder, has a lot of power to influence the opinions of the citizens of Highland and Bath. In this week’s paper, they used that power to trivialize and devalue me as a candidate in a way that was blatant, and completely shameless. They did so in [...]
To my readership outside of Bath County, the increased use of this blog recently to further my candidacy for the Board of Supervisors and provide dispatches from the world of Bath Co. politics may be getting sort of old. Sadly, I can’t help it. Something about being a candidate has [...]
As promised in the post below, I am providing you with a copy of my candidate profile as it appeared in “The Recorder.” Click on the image above to read it. Sadly, I can’t do anything to salvage that photo of myself, but, on [...]
Today’s issue of our local paper, “The Recorder” features profiles of all the Bath County Board of Supervisors candidates appearing on the ballot in this year’s general election who were available for an interview. Although you have to be a paid subscriber to read the entire article, the first few [...]
Tonight at 9:00 P.M., the JohnnyCamacho.Com podcast will host a live debate between Libertarian presidential candidates George Phillies, Steve Kubby and Wayne Allyn Root. These three gentlemen will:
Embedded above is the recent “Inside Scoop” debate between 37th district Senatorial candidates Janet Oleszek (D) and Ken Cuccinelli (R). If I were to numerically rank the weirdest political debates I’ve ever seen, this one would definitely crack my top three.
This is mainly the result of a fundamental flaw [...]
Just six days ago, I wrote this about Liz Bradsher’s flailing school board campaign in Fairfax’s Springfield District:
It seems to me that the Bradsher campaign is in need of a better filter to keep careless mistakes like this from being disseminated to the masses. If they cant keep this sort [...]
From the Huffington Post:
The Huffington Post has learned that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-CA) [sic] will appear on all five major Sunday political talk shows this week — ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN’s Late Edition, and Fox News Sunday. All five of the interviews [...]
There are a few local races around the Commonwealth that I’m watching like a hawk this year. One of them is the School Board race in Fairfax’s Springfield Magisterial District. The two candidates in the running are Liz Bradsher and Ramona Morrow. A source in Fairfax was kind enough to [...]
Back in early August, I wrote a slightly disgruntled post about America’s mangled presidential selection process. In that post, I referenced Larry Sabato’s plan for a less idiotic primary system, which he outlined in an essay for the Virginia Quarterly Review last year. Today, I nearly erupted into celebration [...]
