Here in the 99th House of Delegates district we are cursed with an active Tea Party.  These are the folks who gave rise to Catherine Crabill who urged us, if we don’t get satisfaction from the ballot box, we should use “the bullet box.”

Here’s a LONG item copied from their website announcing the speaker at their 13 Jan meeting.  The Stupid here makes my head hurt — but — this is what these people are being fed and they lap it up.

Our first meeting of 2015 may well be the most interesting and informative we’ve had in quite some time.

The 99th District Tea Party-Lively will meet on Tuesday, January 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Upper Ruritan Club, 3989 White Chapel Rd, Lively. The speaker will be John Guandolo, founder of UnderstandingtheThreat.com  an organization dedicated to providing strategic and operational threat-focused consultation, education, and training for federal, state, and local leadership and agencies, and designing strategies at all levels of the community to defeat the enemy.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1989, Mr. Guandolo took a commission in the US Marine Corps, where he served as an Infantry Platoon Commander in Operation Desert Storm and later in 2d Force Reconnaissance Company, including missions to the Adriatic and Bosnian areas.  Among his other military achievements, Mr. Guandolo graduated from the U.S. Army Ranger School and certified as a combat diver and military free-fall parachutist.

In 1996, Mr. Guandolo resigned his commission in the Marine Corps and joined the FBI in Washington, DC as a narcotics investigator domestically and internationally, liaison to US Capital Police investigating threats on high-level officials, and after 9/11as creator and implementer of the FBI’s first counterterrorism training program.  For his efforts, he received the “Defender of the Homeland” Award in 2007.

Currently, Mr. Guandolo advises governments – U.S. and others – on national security, specifically the threat from the Global Islamic Movement.  He is the co-author of “Shariah – the Threat to America” and the author of “Raising a Jihadi Generation” (Sep 2013).  He frequently appears on TV and radio and regularly publishes articles in a number of media outlets.

The meeting is open to the public. Mr. Guandolo has a unique insight into the threats facing the world from the Islamic Jihad and will take questions following his presentation.

To read a detailed bio of Mr. Guandolo, please click here:

Don Johnson

President

Virginia’s 99th District Tea Party

http://www.va99teaparty.com/

So, I was planning on volunteering for Kathleen Murphy today but am once again disappointed in the  way Virginia Democrats are handling their digital outreach efforts.

You need to get the basics right before you share pics online and give your twitter shout-outs.

Here is the quick list from a brief review:

-> The email with a “Jim, plans tomorrow?” subject line might be better served by mentioning special guests Congressman Don Beyer and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. This message is easy to skip otherwise…it’s better to share the strongest headline or hook rather than just ask a general pseudo-personal question.

-> There are twitter shoutouts with pics of Beyer at the morning event but no advance warning of the 10am canvass to build attendance. There was a facebook post about it but without a clickable link to sign up just an email address….I would also recommend more than one post unless it is sponsored because facebook organic reach is harder than twitter reach nowadays. That’s why I would recommend a facebook group for smaller communities like your volunteer army to connect easier.

-> The email about the canvass today includes a broken link to some kind of NGP sign up page, a graphic about the canvass that isn’t linked to a signed up page but also the email address to RSVP which helps but for a major canvass it would be better to use a sign up page when something as simple as eventbrite can create a nice spreadsheet of all your sign ups with information on preferred shifts, driver/carpooler and other details from volunteers. And the best part is these forms usually have an email confirmation too.

-> If you didn’t get the email but want to get involved by checking the web site then a google search doesn’t produce http://www.murphyfordelegate.com. The best the SEO does is the NGP-branded version of the web site in the 7th listing. And to show the importance of facebook her page is the 1st listing.

-> Once you find the web site, there is no reference to today’s canvass or Events or a Campaign Office address with hours of operation or even a phone number.

-> The Contact page and Volunteer pages only allow you to fill out a form but is the campaign going to respond in time if i want to volunteer today??? I filled it out to find out….stay tuned.

Now we can simply dismiss some of these things as items that very few people who are motivated enough to volunteer will miss but it is a sign that digital is a dormant tool and not being utilized properly.

And it does affect volunteers of all levels of participation. I saw a facebook post from a very active volunteer today asking how to phone bank for the campaign….all i had was an email address for him.

So, if people crazy enough to proactively look for how to get involved like us are getting confused then imagine what it is like for someone who we’re trying to recruit for the first time.

Winning campaigns needed to start somewhere….and I don’t see the foundation being laid in this campaign or several others in Northern Virginia.

UPDATE: 20 minutes before the 1pm canvass the Virginia Young Democrats notified us that Northam will be in Great Falls not McLean as advertised. We’ll see if the campaign ever contacts us.

It’s sadly unsurprising, but this morning’s Washington Post reports on yet another example of the Republican Party’s hostility towards immigrants (really, towards people of color in general). First, bat****-crazy, right-wing extremist State Senator Dick Black (for more on him, see What Is It With Loudoun Republicans?!? Dick Black on Spousal Rape, “Nighties,” etc. and Republican Loudoun-sanity Continues: Dick Black Rails Against Gays in the Military):

*”We’ve got families who have paid Virginia taxes for a lifetime in the hopes that maybe one of their kids can go to a state institution of higher learning, and all of a sudden, we’re going to have foreigners on the fast track.”

Now, fellow far-right-wing Republican, Del. David Ramadan:

*”A ban “is what constituents want; this is what Virginians want; this is what my constituents are telling me – people who work hard and earn their money and earn their status.”

Of course, that’s exactly what comprehensive immigration reform – which Republicans have been blocking in the U.S. House of Representatives, even though it would have passed last year if Boehner et al. had simply put it to a vote – would do: give hard-working people a path to EARNED citizenship. And that’s what the vast majority of Americans support. But not the likes of Dick Black, David Ramadan, and Virginia Republicans, who seem to spend inordinate amounts of their time and energy figuring out ways to deny Latinos…well, pretty much anything. As Del. Alfonso Lopez puts it:

These anti-immigrant bills from Black and Ramadan are shortsighted, wrongheaded and ugly. The Virginia DREAM Act is the right thing to do – not only morally – but also economically. Why would we invest in these students’ education from kindergarten through twelfth grade, but then put up a barrier after graduation that only serves to drive away top talent from Virginia? The Black/Ramadan Anti-Dream Act bills would waste our investment in these incredible students.

Yes, this makes total sense economically, not to mention morally, but for Virginia Republicans like Dick Black and David Ramadan, apparently none of that matters. Remind me again, why does anyone vote for these people exactly?

Yep, it’s a huge, enthusiastic ovation for extremist nutjob/former Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli from the crowd on hand to support newly-elected Prince William County Supervisor Jeanine Lawson (Tea Party Republican). As for Lawson’s remarks, yes, we DO know what you “stand for” (far-right-wing Tea Party values), and that’s what is so disturbing. In fact, a leading Prince William County Democrat tells me that “she will be the most extreme right winger on the Board” (which is saying a lot, given that people like “illegal” immigrant basher Corey Stewart is chair of said Board), for instance saying supposedly saying stuff (according to my PW County Democratic source) in the past about how “preschool is a waste of money.” This should be…uh, interesting?