Move Over Bumper…The Growler is Here!

A “Beer Bucket”

Before Prohibition in this country, it was common that urban dwellers would buy beer by the bucket, and take it home.

With the explosion of micro-brewerys in many areas, the ability to buy beer straight from the brewery has once again become a fairly common fixture, leading to the development of the beer “growler”. A growler is a bottle or jug which can be filled at the local brew pub for consumption at home. They come in various sizes including 32 oz, 64 oz, and 128 oz.And they can be as basic as a “brown jug”, or fancy with carrying handles or made out of ceramic.

 

Seems that this system sort of works everywhere but Florida…

Fla. Brewers Push to Legalize 64-Ounce Beer Jugs

David Wescott has two 32-ounce growlers he brings into Proof Brewing Company to fill up and take home.

Why two? Because Florida is one of only three states where it’s illegal to fill one 64-ounce beer container, known as a growler. He can get as many of the 32-ounce containers filled as he wants, and Florida breweries can also fill unlimited 128-ounce growlers for customers to take home. But the size preferred by most beer enthusiasts is banned.

“If you’re bringing some beer home for you and the wife, that’s two beers,” Wescott, whose wife calls him a beer snob, said of the quart-sized growlers. “It makes no sense to me. It’s just not logical — 128s are probably too much, 32 is too small. I’d love to get a 64.”

Two lawmakers have filed bills to legalize the half-gallon jugs, but a group of beer distributors is fighting both measures and appears to have helped effectively kill both for the year.

Never been much of a beer drinker – but the patchwork of the country’s liquor laws are amazing. I live in a state where there are still “dry” counties, and where the sale of “hard” liquor is confined to State owned stores. What I mean is anybody can buy a hundred guns at a time in my state, and the Republican Governor recently overturned legislation limiting gun purchases to one a month. But… Despite vociferous campaign promises we still haven’t privatized the sale of liquor in the state… Or normalized the law in all of the State’s counties.

How come you can regulate beer in this country… But you can’t regulate guns?

More Zombies!

MORE Zombies! What is going on here? Another incident of cannibalism, this one at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Miami “Zombie” Rudy Eugene (l), and his victim Ronald Poppo (r)

Baltimore Student: I Ate Housemate’s Heart, Brain

Alexander Kinyua Mug Shot

America’s gruesome zombie apocalypsemarches on. This time, a suburban Baltimore man lost his heart and part of his brain to his cannibal college-student roomie, according to police. Kenyan Alexander Kinyua, 21, told cops he stabbed 37-year-old Kujor Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie of Ghana, dismembered him, ate his body parts, then hid the rest of the head and hands in the basement laundry room. Investigators discovered the remains when Kinyua’s dad reported finding them in the home they all shared, reports AP. The rest of Kodie’s body was found in a trash bin outside a nearby church, said police. “I’ve been with the agency 40 years, and I would say this is the first time I can remember someone consumed the victim,” said sheriff Jesse Bane. “I’ve not encountered that in this county, and I hope we never encounter it again.”

Kinyua has been charged with first-degree murder. He was out on bail during the attack after he was charged earlier last month with savagely beating a fellow student, who survived. Kinyua was studying electrical engineering at Morgan State University in Baltimore, and was a one-time member of ROTC at the school. Fellow students told theBaltimore Sun that Kinyua appeared increasing agitated, and was odd to begin with. Police have not revealed a motive for the murder, and are consulting with behavioral experts from the FBI.

I mean – even politicians are getting in on the act! OK – he hasn’t eaten anyone (yet)… But he is showing all the signs of being brain dead!

Artur Davis, Once a Key Obama Backer, Switches to Republican Party

Artur Davis Mug Shot

A Southern Democrat defecting to the GOP is not news. A black Southern Democrat defecting to the GOP is pretty big news. A black Southern Democrat who is a member of Congress and a vocal supporter of President Barack Obama warrants a screaming headline.

Don’t look for the screaming headlines, but former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis has announced he is leaving the Democratic Party, joining the Republican Party, and says he will likely vote for Mitt Romney in November.

Davis is black, but even in Congress he didn’t toe the Black Caucus line. He was an opponent of what has become known as Obamacare, and left his U.S. seat to run for governor of Alabama…

Davis is considering changing his voting registration to Virginia, a fact not lost on Virginia’s Republican governor, Robert McDonnell, who pointed out how powerful a Black Republican running for Congress could be in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Getting on the ballot to run against Jim Moran (D-VA) of Alexandria, or the seat in wealthy exurbs of the 11th Congressional District (now held by Democrat Rep. Gerry Connolly) in 2014 or 2016 would not be a heavy lift.

Hey.. Wait a minute! THAT’S my District! Time to head down to Dick’s Sporting Goods and see if they got any “Zombie Repellent”!

Yeah, I know Artur isn’t technically a Zombie – he hasn’t eaten anyone (yet)…

But the term Bamafied Lawn Jockey…

Just seems so dated.

Go on back home Artur – we don’t want you Uncle Tom ass in Virginia.

Of Melungeons and Other Historical Mysteries

Arch Goins and family, Melungeons from Graysville, Tennessee, c. 1920s

When Dr. Thomas Walker and Daniel Boone first explored what they would name the Cumberland Gap, the pass which allowed western expansion by the colonists in the Mid-Atlantic region in 1750 – they found a group of folks living in the area who were not Native Americans. They spoke English, and by appearances were neither white, black, or Native American. They became known as Melungeons, partially based on an early statement by one of the group that they were “Portugee”.

Theories have abounded as to how thee folks got there, and from where they came from. The most romantic of which claimed that they were descendants of survivors of the “Lost Colony” and Virginia Dare on Roanoke Island near the border of Virginia and North Carolina who mysteriously disappeared in 1586/7. Others have it they were the descendants of Portugese sailors and Turkish slaves who had been shipwrecked along the Barrier Islands protecting the Carolina and Virginia coasts during the 15th or 16th Century. Still another had them as descendents of slaves originating from the first Spanish Colony located on the Virginia/North Carolina Coast founded by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526, which was destroyed by a slave revolt.

None of these historical theories was true.

Another long standing mystery is what happened to the initial African slaves brought to Virginia in 1619. Because there were no slave laws in Virgina at that time – they were purchased as Indentured Servants. Serving of a period of years to pay back the cost of their voyage – or “purchase” cost…

After which they became free, along with the hundreds of thousands of white Europeans who had been brought to the Colonies as Indentured Servants typically to pay off their debts. Permanent black slavery wasnt legally institutionalized in Virginia until about 1670, when a number of “Slave Codes” were ratified in response to several slave revolts, and complaints of slave owners about the economic cost of having to free their slaves.  So what happened in the intervening period to these black folks who were brought to America – served as Indentured labor and paid off their debt to be free? The commonly accepted story is that they intermarried with Native Americas – which is only partially true.

Laws against miscegenation between black and white were codified about 1660 in Virginia. The issue was in large part that by treaty (with Native Americans) and law – the status of a couple’s children, slave or free – was based on the status of the Mother. Thus if an African male slave married and had children with a white female Indentured Servant – any resulting children were freedmen. This posed an economic conundrum for Virginia slave holders, and a loss of valuable property in the form of new slaves. Thus we start to see laws being put into place to prevent this.

Unions between black and white was far more common than many historians would have you believe – and not just the result of the slave Master raping their slave women. By some calculations, supported by DNA tests – about 30% of what is now considered the white population of the US, whose families lived in slave states before the Civil War have black Sub-Saharan ancestry. The result of these marriages was the establishment of large bi- and tri- racial communities in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Louisiana. The groundbreaking work of Professor Paul Heinegg, of the University of Virginia ”Free  African American Families of Virginia and North Carolina” and which has been expanded to now include Maryland, Delaware, and other states  - found that the genesis of most Free African American families before the Civil War in Virginia and North Carolina was the result of these unions between black males and white women. If you will recall, Thomas Jefferson kept his offspring from Sally Hemmings in slavery.

Unions between black slaves and white indentured servants were not rare – a situation creating the need (at least from the slave owners viewpoint) for laws prohibiting such unions. Which leaves the question – where did these families, established before the permanent slave laws,  go after finishing their indenture?

Part of my own family were what is called”Atlantic Creoles” (descendants of a white Sea Captain and an “Indian” woman who moved to Montgomery County  from what is now the Norfolk/Newport News area in 1719) whose children migrated from Montgomery County, Virginia on the lower Rappahannock River to an area near the Cumberland Gap on what is now the Virginia – West Virginia border to escape re-enslavement. They would fight a nearly 50 year legal battle in the Courts to retain their freedom. There was already a thriving black (or tri-racial) community there. What they did was to follow the path after the American Revolution of many European-American settlers and move west to the “frontier”, forming stable communities along the Virginia -West Virginia border.

Indeed there is evidence through letters that Confederate troops stayed out of certain counties in Virginia and North Carolina because the majority of the residents were freedmen who took a dim view of Confederates and would shoot any Confederate who wandered into the wrong territory. I have more then anecdotal evidence that being a slave catcher wandering onto some of those counties was a terminal profession. You can track some of that looking at General Sheridan’s campaign in the Shenandoah - looking at where they DIDN’T fight the Rebs.

My Dad, who was a Historian always claimed that the Melungeons of the region were actually the descendants of the first Africans brought to America who had intermarried with white Indentured Servants and had served out their indenture and moved to the remote area to escape persecution.

Turns out he was right. He referred to these folks as “cousins” – although I never figured out why, or have proven any direct family relationship with any of the 40 or so Melungeon families. He was also good friends with one of the Goins family descendants.

Melungeon history researchers at various times have claimed that several famous people were descendants of Melungeons, including Elvis Presley, Ava Gardner, and Abraham Lincoln. That is in all likleyhood wishful thinking – as I have never heard on any evidence to back such claims. The truth of which would be explosive.

Melungeon DNA Study Reveals Ancestry, Upsets ‘A Whole Lot Of People’

For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were descended from Portuguese explorers, or perhaps from Turkish slaves or Gypsies.

Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence shows that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin.

Church Discovers History in Forgotten Graveyard

Growing up in the area – this community was always referred to as “Hall’s Hill” even though it’s official name was High View Park. It is one of several hills overlooking the city of Washington DC from the Virginia side of the river. It was the first free-black community in Northern Virginia, and today maintains some of that flavor despite folks moving in of different ethnicity.

This is still an area which has black churches, black barbershops, and black beauty parlours. I don’t believe any of the local stores or shops survive, but several turn of the century buildings are still standing. Some of the families still living in this community have roots here which go back to slavery. Those “old” families purchased their land after the Civil War from the Plantation Owner, and set off to build a new community. I’m old enough to remember the “Ice Store” on the main street before it was torn down, which by my time had been converted into a local Mom and Pop grocery store, although locals still referred to it as the “Ice Store”.

Some years ago I met a guy who was uncovering graveyards in rural areas on the Eastern Shore. Seems once the families moved away, often the presence of the graveyard was forgotten. He used some high tech equipment to identify the graves, and sometimes could uncover markers with information on them. It was impossible to determine who was in the graves, sometimes which predated the Civil War.

Calloway Methodist Cemetery

Calloway Cemetery preservation unearths Arlington churchgoers’ roots

When Saundra Green looks over the compact cemetery adjacent to Calloway United Methodist Church in Arlington, she sees a history of her community. The oldest grave contains Margaret Hyson, who died in 1891 and was a slave on the Hall’s Hill plantation before emancipation.

Under another marker is Hesakiah Dorsey, a slave who joined the Union Army during the Civil War and who had 17 children. Green’s great-grandfather, T.W. Hyson, is buried here, too; in 1927, he was a principal at then-segregated Chesterbrook High School in Fairfax County.

And there’s Louise Bolden, who died, according to Green’s family history, on the way to tell relatives about another death in the family. “I also have two uncles buried here who we can’t find: my mother’s brothers Leon and Ernest,” Green said. Burials at Calloway Cemetery ended in 1959, and over time, gravestones fell or slumped. People forgot who rested in unmarked plots; the lawn became bumpy and uneven.

Congregants who gather on the church’s driveway after services have done their best to keep the grass cut and the weeds trimmed.

Now Arlington County is about to designate the tiny plot at 5000 Lee Hwy. as a local historic district, ensuring that it will be protected and that the county will have to review proposed changes. County preservation planner Cynthia Liccese-Torres said members of the church approached officials two years ago about preserving and restoring the cemetery. Liccese-Torres, who has worked for the county for 11 years, began looking at census and historical data. She unearthed a 1985 survey of cemeteries by the Arlington Genealogical Club. She circulated a questionnaire at the church to tease out oral reports of who might be buried there. She found an archaeologist who could gently probe the property and identify between 40 and 50 “lost” graves and uncover markers buried by time and soil. Her best estimate is that about 100 people are buried in the 7,100-square-foot lawn.

She found the project fascinating. One of the most eye-opening moments was when she discovered small crosses on a Virginia Department of Transportation map of Lee Highway. It turned out that when the highway was widened in 1960, 10 bodies were exhumed. The state could not identify the deceased, but there was a record of where they were taken: Coleman Cemetery, in the Alexandria section of southern Fairfax County. Last year, some church members went there to look for the graves but did not find them. “As far as we know, the people who were removed were in unmarked graves, and it’s possible” they are buried together in an unmarked grave at Coleman, ­Liccese-Torres said.

The information, especially the details from old census records, was welcomed by the 156 members of the 145-year-old church. “It gave us so much more family history,” Green said. “It’s a lot . . . that this new generation of us didn’t know. We didn’t know how to find it. For the community, it’s important to know the African American history of Arlington, because it’s very prominent and it goes back more than 140 years.” Calloway United was established in 1866 by freed slaves, some of whom bought land from plantation owners William Marcey and Bazil Hall, for whom they had worked.

Its members formed the stable, close-knit community called Highview Park/Hall’s Hill. The community was self-contained in many ways, including by a notorious eight-foot-tall fence along 17th Road North that separated it from its white neighbors until the 1950s. Black residents built their own businesses — a barber shop, two ice stores, a fire station, a newspaper and a bus company.

Health needs were cared for by a midwife and a physician. A folklorist wrote a book about the neighborhood, drawing on its oral history. In 1959, Calloway’s members were among the four youngsters who integrated all-white Stratford Junior High, the first Arlington County public school to challenge Virginia’s “massive resistance” opposition to desegregation. In the 1960s, the church housed civil rights demonstrators headed to the big marches and protests in the District, while its members worked to desegregate local lunch counters, hospitals and theaters.

In advance of the county’s designation of Calloway Cemetery as historic, church members are making plans. They’d like to put in a fence, clean and raise some of the markers, and level the ground. It’s not yet clear how they will pay for the improvements, but that hasn’t diminished support. “We are thrilled because some members of our church didn’t realize their own grandparents were here,” said Rev. Sonja Oliver, the church pastor, who arrived in June to find research well underway. “This cemetery is extremely significant in the lives of people because it fills a void. It’s a missing piece in so many people’s lives — that sense of heritage and pride.” On a sunny, breezy day, as clouds blew south and several old tree stumps adorned with cheery artificial flowers stood sentinel, Green and Oliver looked pleased. “This is not just about the past,” Oliver said. “It’s the future. A legacy is only as good as its life span.”

No Nookie for the Bedroom Gestapo

Dayam! This should have the effect of clearing a lot of right wing minds. This Republican even relates his experience in proverbially “sleeping on the couch” as a result of the recent Virginia anti-abortion bill which would require women to undergo vaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion.

Virginia Lawmaker: Ultrasound Flap Cost Me Nookie

We’ll hope this is the last word on Virginia’stransvaginal ultrasound controversy for a long time. GOP delegate Dave Albo took to the floor of the state House to describe how it caused him to miss out on a romantic night with his wife, reports the Huffington Post. (See the video.) Albo described how he was trying to put the moves on his wife—he even played the cheesy “mood music” for his fellow legislators—when a news show came on with a segment about the controversy.

Albo’s own name was mentioned, and they watched the entire thing. “The show’s over, and [my wife] looks at me, and she goes, ‘I gotta go to bed.’” Referring to a Democratic lawmaker who appeared on the show, Albo joked, “So if the gentleman’s plan was to make sure there is one less Republican in this world, he did.” Albo eventually wrote the compromise language that gives women the option of refusing the procedure, notes ABC News. Less »

Lighting a Fire – Personhood Bills

The newest group legislation pushed by Republicans across the state legislatures is called Personhood. It is a direct attack on Abortion, by declaring a fetus a person at the moment of conception.

The pushback against this legislation nationwide is just beginning to gain steam… But in Virginia it seems to have gone from zero to 900 MPH in just a few days…

Think maybe Gov McDonnell may be looking at the end of those future political ambitions.

Opposition mounts to Va. personhood bill

A petition opposing two abortion-related bills winding through the Virginia legislature is spreading like “wildfire.” In just over 24 hours, 17,000 people have signed the measure that says the Virginia government is conducting a “war on women.”

The petition is organized by ProgressVA. Most of the signatories say they are Virginia residents and most are women, and the message they give is clear: The government is overstepping its bounds.

“This war on women has got to stop,” the petition reads. “Virginia may be the butt of jokes for late night comedians, but the bills coming out of the General Assembly this year are no laughing matter.”

Catherine from Richmond wrote next to her name: “I say to you men in the Virginia legislature – Leave our bodies alone. This is not your place; this is not your right. What you’re doing is immoral.”

The online petition through signon.org has been spreading quickly, largely through social media. (In the thirty minutes it took me to write this story, 300 additional people added their name.)

“We’re absolutely pleased and frankly a little overwhelmed,” with petition response, Anna Scholl, Executive Director of ProgressVA, said. “It’s been spreading like wildfire.”

The petition is addressed to The Virginia State Senate, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Governor Bob McDonnell as they are instrumental in the future of these bills. (McDonnell is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate.)

The Virginia House of Delegates passed HB 1, also known as the “personhood” bill, this week. It defines a fertilized egg as a person, and according to the legislation, “provides that unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the Commonwealth.”

Virginia would be the first state in the nation to define a fetus – and a fertilized egg – as a person. It passed the General Assembly and the Senate could take it up as early as this week, if it chooses.

The second bill petitioners object to is HB 462, which requires a woman receive a transvaginal ultrasound before an abortion. Both bodies of the legislature have passed this measure and only needs Republican Gov. McDonnell’s signature before it becomes law.

Scholl says they will continue to spread the word and hope to deliver the petitions as early as this week.

“These recent policies turn my stomach. I believe in fiscal conservatism. Stop mixing it with my personal rights,” Lisa Schroeer of Charlottesville, Virginia wrote.

Republican Halloween Mailer Shows President Obama Gun Shot

The Obama Derangement Syndrome is getting serious as the Group of 8 Republican Dwarves continue to fall apart. Yet another Republican mailer advocating killing our President…

Zombie Obama Email: Virginia GOP Condemns Image Of President With Bullet Through Head

 Republican Party officials in Virginia have swiftly come out against a Halloween-oriented email message from the Loudoun County GOP committee that depicts President Obama as a zombie with a bullet through his head.

As The Washington Post reports, the message was condemned by the state party and Gov. Robert McDonnell (R), who called the message “shameful and offensive.” State GOP chairman Pat Mullins, according to the Post, said the party is in the process of finding those who are responsible for the image.

The Northern Virginia blog Too Conservative, which first posted the county GOP’s Halloween email message on Monday, said the image of Obama crossed the line:

Like him or not he is the legitimately elected the President of the United States and Commander in Chief of our armed services in a time of war. THIS IS DISGUSTING AND SHAMEFUL. Someone should send this to the US Secret Service.The image also includes an image of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with an eye bulging out of its socket.

What’s With the Criminal Republican Candidates?

You gotta know if you run for office, if you have isht in your past it is going to come out.

And while a DUI or a Speeding Ticket or two probably isn’t going to impact voters very much…

Having sex with a child is a surefire ticket to voter (and hopefully incarceration) hell. Sounds to me that this Republican Independent, Linda Wall belongs on the Sexual Predator registry – instead of being registered as a candidate for the Virginia House.

What is amusing about this is that it appears Ms. Wall, the “Independent” candidate is in the race because of Republican candidate, Mr. Fariss’s legal and ethical problems…

Democrat Connie Brennan (l), and "Independent" Linda Wall (r)

Linda Wall, Virginia House Of Delegates Candidate, Admits Lesbian Affair With Minor

Linda Wall, a conservative independent Virginia candidate for the House of Delegates, admitted on Wednesday that she had an affair with a female student as a junior high gym teacher in the early 1970s, but said she has changed.

“I’ve never tried to hide that I was in homosexuality,” she said in an interview with the AP. “If anybody Googles me, they would find that out there,” she said. “Forty years ago I was a different person. I was a heavy pot smoker with … impaired judgment and made some bad choices,” she added. The student was a minor at the time, meaning Wall could still be prosecuted if she comes forward.

In a 2006 deposition as part of a defamation lawsuit former Republican candidate Paul Jost filed against her and state Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., Wall confirmed that she had sexual relations with a minor. She said resigned her position after the superintendent of the unspecified Prince George County, Va. school confronted her about the allegation.

Wall said that she converted to Christianity, changed her sexual orientation and stopped using drugs. She has lobbied the Virginia legislature on social issues and describes herself as “ex-gay.”

Wall isn’t the only candidate with ethical issues in the November election centered in Appomattox County, Virginia, following the retirement of independent Del. Watkins Abbitt. Republican candidate Matt Fariss was named in a 2002 emergency protective order against a local woman, and was convicted in separate incidents for holding a concealed weapon and drunk driving. Supporters of Democratic candidate Connie Brennan have publicized repots on Fariss, whose record includes several misdemeanor convictions related to hunting violations and a DUI.

Apparently the guys are getting heavy financial support from the Republican Party, as reported here. And Mr. Fariss’ criminal record seems to be a bit more extensive than mentioned.

Lexington, Va. Bans Confederates From Flying Flags Using Public Property

The “Flag battle” erupts again. This one seems a rather sensible approach, which is that you can’t use public facilities, such as light poles to fly the confederate flag. Otherwise, people can carry the flag, hang it from private buildings, or display it any way they like…

Sensible in that the government shouldn’t be providing a resting place to celebrate the confederate flag, any more than it should for the Nazi Flag, or the Rising Sun.

Of course, being sensible doesn’t mean it won’t cause a firestorm – especially here in the lower Shenandoah Valley where two of the icons of the confederate cause in Virginia are buried, and pro-confederate history and sentiments run deep.

Crypts...Good Places for Dead confederates and Their Cause.

Virginia city limits Confederate flag flying in burial place of Robert Lee, Stonewall Jackson

A rural Virginia city where Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson are buried voted to limit the flying of the Confederate flag on poles on several downtown streets.

The 4-1 vote Thursday night by the Lexington City Council allows only the Virginia, U.S. and city flags to be displayed. Personal displays of the flag are not affected.

About 100 people led by the Sons of Confederate Veterans rallied before the vote. They then showed up in force to speak to city council to dissuade them from enacting the ordinance.

Some residents complained that the flag is a symbol of the South’s history of slavery and shouldn’t be endorsed by the city.

After the vote, the Sons said they would legally challenge the flag ban in the city of 7,000.

 

Virginia’s History Text Disaster

No, Virginia - These guys had pretty much gone the way of the DoDo Bird by the 15th Century...

This one first surfaced in October, when a controversy erupted due to a claim in a History Text used in Virginia 5th Grade Elementary Schools contained the assertion that “thousands of black soldiers served in the confederate army”, and that black soldiers fought under Stonewall Jackson…

Neither of which is in the least bit true. Turns out the person who writes History Texts for Five Ponds Press, the company which has a lock on Virginia textbooks – isn’t a Historian. And Five Ponds Press doesn’t have their textbooks vetted by professionals prior to publication, with History Texts written by Joy Masoff.

How did Five Ponds get a lock on the Commonwealth’s textbooks? (Yes, Virginia is one of two Commonwealths in America! Extra points if you remember 10th Grade US History and the other one.)

It doesn’t appear to be anything nefarious. Virginia has a policy favoring small publishers. Second, Five Ponds reacted quickly in developing textbooks tailored to Virginia’s infamous “Standards of Learning” test…errrr… hygiene (I’m trying not to use the “s” word”!).

A combination of poor sourcing and fact checking by Five Ponds, which does $70 million a year worth of business with Virginia (who appear to be their sole, if not principal client) – and a complete breakdown by the Commonwealth in auditing the textbooks for accuracy has resulted in textbooks distributed throughout the School System with dozens, if not hundreds of errors.

In the version of history being taught in some Virginia classrooms, New Orleans began the 1800s as a bustling U.S. harbor (instead of as a Spanish colonial one). The Confederacy included 12 states (instead of 11). And the United States entered World War I in 1916 (instead of in 1917).

The text also claims that early Virginia settlers commonly wore full suits of Armor. Unfortunately for Five Ponds, Virginia was settled a few centuries after Knights in Shining Armor roamed the fields of Europe and the Middle East. By the 16th Century, muskets had pretty much rendered anything except a breastplate, and possibly a helmet obsolete.

Growing up in Virginia, I remember the pre-1970′s textbooks whose content was specified by the State Legislature. Replete with stories of “happy darkies” tending the fields as slaves in Antebellum heaven – let’s just say the Southern Myth was on full display in all it’s rancid glory. Some states, notably Texas and Arizona – apparently never left that era.

Some Va. history texts filled with errors, review finds

These are among the dozens of errors historians have found since Virginia officials ordered a review of textbooks by Five Ponds Press, the publisher responsible for a controversial claim that African American soldiers fought for the South in large numbers during the Civil War.

“Our Virginia: Past and Present,” the textbook including that claim, has many other inaccuracies, according to historians who reviewed it. Similar problems, historians said, were found in another book by Five Ponds Press, “Our America: To 1865.” A reviewer has found errors in social studies textbooks by other publishers as well, underscoring the limits of a textbook-approval process once regarded as among the nation’s most stringent.

“I absolutely could not believe the number of mistakes – wrong dates and wrong facts everywhere. How in the world did these books get approved?” said Ronald Heinemann, a former history professor at Hampden-Sydney College. He reviewed “Our Virginia: Past and Present.”

In his recommendation to the state, Heinemann wrote, “This book should be withdrawn from the classroom immediately, or at least by the end of the year.”

The review began after The Washington Post reported in October that “Our Virginia” included a sentence saying that thousands of black soldiers fought for the South. The claim is one often made by Confederate heritage groups but rejected by most mainstream historians. The book’s author, Joy Masoff, said at the time that she found references to it during research on the Internet. Five Ponds Press later apologized.

The unusual review process involved five professional scholars. The results, said three of those involved in the process, proved disturbing. Some submitted lists of errors that ran several pages long. State officials plan to meet Jan. 10 to review the historians’ concerns. (more)

Surprise! Surprise! In the Bag Republican Judge Rules Against Health Care

Nothing like having “special” judges to rule for “special” people…and in this case to toe the Party line.

A Bush appointed judge agreed with the right wing Kook – now isn’t that a surprise?

With all of the problems we have right now in terms of unemployment, the foreclosure scams, and a host of other issues…

WTF is this POS wasting Virginia’s money on this?

Va AG Ken "The Kook" Cuccinelli

The Right Wing Ideologue Judge - Henry Hudson

 

Federal Judge Declares Health Care Reform Unconstitutional

A federal judge declared the Obama administration’s health care law unconstitutional today, siding with Virginia’s attorney general in a dispute that both sides agree will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. US District Judge Henry E. Hudson on is the first federal judge to strike down the law, which has been upheld by two others in Virginia and Michigan. Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli filed the lawsuit challenging the law’s requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014.

Cuccinelli argued that the federal government doesn’t have the constitutional authority to impose the requirement. Hudson, a Republican who was appointed by President George W. Bush, sounded sympathetic to the state’s case when he heard oral arguments in October, and the White House expected to lose this round. Officials told reporters last week that a negative ruling would have virtually no impact on the law’s implementation, noting that its two major provisions—the coverage mandate and the creation of new insurance markets—don’t take effect until 2014. Other lawsuits are pending, including one filed by 20 states in a Florida court; Virginia is not part of that lawsuit.

 

 

Those Invisible Black Confedrates Appear Again in Virginia Textbook

One more time… There were NO black confederate soldiers in Virginia! And I highly doubt there were any anywhere else other than the documented case of the New Orleans Regiment, which promptly defected and became the 1st US Colored, and two slave regiments assembled in South Carolina in the last days of the war.

What there were were slaves, who had been lent to the confederate Army in exchange for their Masters not having to serve. These slaves dug fortifications, latrines, and cooked for white confederate troops. They did not carry guns, they did not fight… AND THEY DIED a lot, from diseases infecting the camps. During the siege of Petersberg and Richmond near the end of the war, free blacks were impressed into service, often at gunpoint to dig fortifications.

The question here is why is Virginia using a “history textbook” written by someone who isn’t even a historian? Who is stupid enough (or racist enough) to quote a widely debunked fairy tale used to bolster the Southern Myth…

What it looks like here is that neo-confederate racist Republicans who hold the Virginia Governor’s office are screwing up Virginia’s textbooks the same way the clowns did to Texas’ there.

Black confederates in Civil War? Sure there were...

Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers

A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War — a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery’s role as a cause of the conflict.

The passage appears in “Our Virginia: Past and Present,” which was distributed in the state’s public elementary schools for the first time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has written several books, said she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned up work by members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Scholars are nearly unanimous in calling these accounts of black Confederate soldiers a misrepresentation of history. Virginia education officials, after being told by The Washington Post of the issues related to the textbook, said that the vetting of the book was flawed and that they will contact school districts across the state to caution them against teaching the passage.

“Just because a book is approved doesn’t mean the Department of Education endorses every sentence,” said spokesman Charles Pyle. He also called the book’s assertion about black Confederate soldiers “outside mainstream Civil War scholarship.”

Masoff defended her work. “As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write,” she said. “I am a fairly respected writer.”

The issues first came to light after College of William & Mary historian Carol Sheriff opened her daughter’s copy of “Our Virginia” and saw the reference to black Confederate soldiers.

“It’s disconcerting that the next generation is being taught history based on an unfounded claim instead of accepted scholarship,” Sheriff said. “It concerns me not just as a professional historian but as a parent.”

Virginia, which is preparing to mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, has long struggled to appropriately commemorate its Confederate past. The debate was reinvigorated this spring, when Gov. Robert F. Mc­Don­nell (R) introduced “Confederate History Month” in Virginia without mentioning slavery’s role in the Civil War. He later apologized.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of male descendants of Confederate soldiers based in Columbia, Tenn., has long maintained that substantial numbers of black soldiers fought for the South The group’s historian-in-chief, Charles Kelly Barrow, has written the book “Black Confederates.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans also disputes the widely accepted conclusion that the struggle over slavery was the main cause of the Civil War. Instead, the group says, the war was fought “to preserve their homes and livelihood,” according to John Sawyer, chief of staff of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Army of Northern Virginia. He said the group was pleased that a state textbook accepted some of its views.

The state’s curriculum requires textbook publishers and educators to explore the role African Americans played in the Confederacy, including their work on plantations and on the sidelines of battle. Those standards have evolved in recent years to make lessons on the Civil War more inclusive in a state that is growing increasingly diverse.

When Masoff began work on the textbook, she said she consulted a variety of sources — history books, experts and the Internet. But when it came to one of the Civil War’s most controversial themes — the role of African Americans in the Confederacy — she relied primarily on an Internet search.

Arrest In Serial Stabber Case

This undated photo released by the Arlington, Va., County Police Department shows Elias Abuelazam. Abuelazam, suspect in a string of 18 stabbings that terrorized people across three states and left five dead, was charged Thursday, August 12, 2010 with assault with intent to murder in connection with a July 27 stabbing in Flint, Michigan. Abuelazam was arrested at a gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as he tried to board a plane for Israel, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Arlington County Police Department)

Atlanta Police have announced the arrest of a suspect in the multistate serial stabber case. The suspect was attempting to board a flight to Israel, apparently on an expired Israeli passport. No word yet on the identification of the suspect, but police have said the man had ties to both the Flint, Michigan and Leesburg, Virginia areas.

Arrest in Serial Stabber Case, posted with vodpod

Ken “the Kook” Cuccinelli’s New Immigration Law in Virginia

This stupid SOB is an embarrassment to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

We need a recall election in Virginia to get rid of this POS…and his boss the Governor.

Virginia legal opinion supports checks of immigration status

Ken "Kookinelli", Virginia Attorney General who is your typical far right racist POS trying to drag Virginia Back into the "good old days: of Jim Crow

Virginia joined the national debate over immigration Monday when Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II issued a legal opinion that authorizes law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone stopped by police officers for any reason.

Previously, law enforcement officers in Virginia were required to investigate the legal status only of those who were arrested and jailed.

Cuccinelli’s opinion is less stringent than the portion of an Arizona law that was stopped by a federal court last week. Under that law, Arizona authorities were required to question people who they have a “reasonable suspicion” are illegal immigrants.

“Our opinion basically said that Virginia law enforcement has the authority to make such inquiries so long as they don’t extend the duration of a stop by any significant degree,” Cuccinelli (R) said at a news conference Monday. “That’s consistent with Supreme Court authority.”

The attorney general issued the opinion in response to a request from Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), who sought clarification on whether local police, conservation officers and zoning officials could inquire about legal status.

Marshall said he chose to seek the legal opinion because he feared that the Senate, under Democratic control, would not approve legislation permitting law enforcement officers to inquire about legal status during routine stops. Bills seeking similar powers were killed in the Senate in recent years.

Marshall wrote to Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) on Monday asking him to codify Cuccinelli’s opinion through executive order. He said he thinks that Virginia can avoid legal trouble by allowing but not mandating the checks by police.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said the governor will review the opinion, saying it built upon an opinion he issued as attorney general in 2007. “That opinion detailed how local and state law enforcement officials can work in cooperation with federal authorities to ensure the criminal immigration laws of this nation are upheld and enforced,” Martin said in a statement.

‘The same inquiries’

In his opinion, Cuccinelli also wrote that local law enforcement officers can arrest those they suspect of committing criminal violations of immigration laws — crossing the border — but not those they think have violated civil immigration statutes — overstaying visas. But he says that checking immigration status is different than arresting for a violation, and that law enforcement can inquire.

“Virginia law enforcement officers have the authority to make the same inquiries as those contemplated by the new Arizona law. So long as the officers have the requisite level of suspicion to believe that a violation of the law has occurred, the officers may detain and briefly question a person they suspect has committed a federal crime,” he writes.

Cuccinelli said, however, that local law enforcement can arrest those suspected of violating criminal laws, but that it is generally “inadvisable” to arrest those suspected of committing civil violations. “The ability to arrest lies clearly when there is a criminal offense and it is decidedly unclear where there is a civil offense,” he said.

The attorney general’s legal opinion was issued amid a growing national debate about immigration. A U.S. district judge temporarily blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona’s law, which took effect last week. Nearly 20 states have introduced bills similar to the Arizona law, and nine states, including Virginia, are filing appellate briefs supporting Arizona.

Senator James Webb of Virginia, Loses His Seat

Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, just destroyed his electoral chances with a ill conceived, and patently erroneous screed on “Diversity” in (of all stupid places), the Wall Street Journal.

Policy makers ignored such disparities within America’s white cultures when, in advancing minority diversity programs, they treated whites as a fungible monolith. Also lost on these policy makers were the differences in economic and educational attainment among nonwhite cultures. Thus nonwhite groups received special consideration in a wide variety of areas including business startups, academic admissions, job promotions and lucrative government contracts.

Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.

Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.

Senator Webb, this constituent is pissed at you. I am pissed at you because of your ignorance. Now, I know you are a former Republican, but that really is no excuse. You have been a Democrat now for a while. What that means is you now, unlike when you were a Republican have access to folks within your own party who fought for Civil Rights in this country. You have access to people who clearly understand the issues, are fully cognizant of the history (because they lived it), and who, like Mrs Sherrod don’t have any crosses to burn about hating white folks.

Further, as a Senator, you have access to many of the countries best legal and academic minds, who can clearly enunciate the history, the legal and Constitutional context, and operation of the various Affirmative Action and Diversity programs in the United States. So why don’t you go down down the hall and talk to one of those legal experts and learn -

Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the US Government cannot pass a law, legislation, or federal regulation which discriminates based on race.

Now, read that a couple of times and let it sink in.

What that means is that ANY Federal Legislation, FAR, or regulation had to apply equally to every single group in America… including the current conservative pity candidate – white folks.

First a few facts to allieviate you ignorance -

Prior to Adorand v Pena, the Supreme Court decision which effectively ended Affirmative Action in this country as a remedy for past and existing discrimination (Existing discrimination, Mr. Webb? Virginia has lots of farms, Mr. Webb, at one time many owned by black farmers. Read this on how racism, and discrimination against minorities still is a serious issue at the USDA.)…

1. In 1993 there were over 400 Disadvantaged Small Businesses owned by white males – many from exactly the same region you are crying about.
2. Over 90% of the beneficiaries of Affirmative Action in contracting by the Federal Government were white.

Post 1993 and conservative uproar and pushback against black folks starting businesses, the Government contracting system shifted to “Hub Zones”, ergo – companies set up and operated in economically disadvantaged areas were given “Small Disadvantaged Business” status, which allowed them to bid on small (<$200k) contracts without competition, and small competitive contracts (<$12 m) against other similarly situated companies. Hub Zones are not assigned by race – they are assigned by the income and poverty level in any particular area – meaning there are lots of Hub Zones in poor white areas, and hundreds, if not thousands of white owned companies taking advantage of the Federal Government’s “Diversity Contracting Program” as “Disadvantaged Small Businesses”.

But while you are fawning all over the racist conservative right - you might just want to read about the disparate economic impact of Minority Owned Firms, which just might be relevant because of how bad your conservative friends have screwed the American economy and the country. And what the Bushit did to Small Business -

1. Cutting the Small Business Administration’s budget by nearly half. The SBA is the financial guarantor of only resort for many Minority owned businesses because of active redlining by commercial and merchant banks.
2. Cutting financings of Minority and women owned businesses from 26% of total loans in 1998 to under 8% in 2007.
3. Diverting over $800 billion in Minority and women Owned business contracts to the Big 6 Government contractors, often under false pretenses.

For reasons I can’t get a grasp on, you want to hold onto the racist meme that progress for black folks means negative progress for white folks…

And that is just plain unacceptable – because it is patently false.

Your version of a “level playing field” is the fact that black folks start 30% of the new incorporations in the United States…

But receive less that .03% of the Venture Financing as reported by Forbes Magazine.

That version of “level playing field” pretends that 10 black kids getting into a graduate program at a state university due to AA, is far more critical a national issue –  than the systematic perversion of Justice in many states where blacks are systematically excluded from Jury Pools.

In our own state – you ex-political mate Jim McDonnell has brought back a “literacy test” for ex-felons to gain back their voting rights exactly like the Old Jim Crow system of Poll Taxes and Literacy tests. Now, if a disproportionate percentage of those felons is black (see jury pools) – what exactly does that mean Mr. Webb?

Think you should take advantage of that “learning experience” Mr Webb.

BTW – I put this post under my category – “The New Jim Crow” – perhaps you should read it.