I am in the media section with great seats in the back of the ground floor.  I have seen and been greeted by too many to mention but I will mention one or two as I listen to the Lieutenant Governor candidates.  I shout out to Del. Peace who provided the Hanover delegation with a box lunch (I am a delegate, too) and a free lunch is great.  Del. Peace is one of our finest members of the legislature in VA.  I also shout out to Loudoun County Supervisor (Sterling District) Eugene Delguardio who will let me know if the county is OUT of ICLEI!

I have not heard all the speakers but I think Pete Snyder, Bishop Jackson and yes, Corey Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, seems to have the best turnout so far.  But we’ll see what will happen.

1:13PM:

Del. Rob Bell just had an excellent video starting with an abused spouse who Bell as a prosecutor fought for again and again until her stalking, abusive former husband finally left her alone.  Bell also had several people, including Del. Rich Anderson (a fine delegate), Senator Tom Garrett and others talk about how the property rights constitutional amendment.  It lost until Bell persuaded a Democrat to support it.  Very effective.

Senator Obenshain did a short video honored his father and had several others to introduce him including Del. Terry Kilgore, Donna Holt and Mike Farris.  Very effective.  His demonstration is pretty broad.  I still think Obenshain will win.  But we’ll see.  Maybe Del. Bell has positioned himself for future run statewide.

Senator (My senator!) McDougle just came by to say hello!

There are 8,094 delegates eligible to vote at this convention.

2:16PM:

Still voting in first ballot.  I voted for Bishop Jackson and Del. Bell.  Awaiting the count.  My prediction is for the first ballot that Sen. Obenshain will win the AG’s race by a 54-46 margin.  No majority in the LG race. That Corey Stewart will be first, followed by Bishop Jackson or maybe Pete Snyder.  The final two who will not be on the second round ballot will be Senator Martin and Jeannemarie Davis.  If there is a surprise, it will be a Bell victory and Del. Lingamfelter finishing in the top three.

Well see….

3:10PM:

It’s unconfirmed but Congressman Goodlatte says he’ll look into overcriminalization.  GOOD!  Find some useless laws and get rid of them or amend them.

3:38PM:

Still not confirmed from deep, deep background but Bishop Jackson may be out in front with nearly 40%; the AG race sounds like Obenshain.  But that is not I repeat NOT confirmed.

3:46PM:

They just stated that the announcement is coming up very shortly.  So much for ninety minutes!

5:24PM!

First ballot!  Obenshain did win and Del. Bell made a nice concession by moving that Sen. Obenshain be nominated by acclamation.  Very classy.  I spoke with Del. Bell and encouraged him a bit that he is still a great voice in the House of Delegates.

BUT the story is the LG’s race:  Not at all what I expected.  Susan Stimpson came in second with just over 15% but was far behind the leader: Bishop Jackson at 31%!  Corey Stewart and Pete Snyder are essentially tied at just under 15% and Del. Lingamfelter has 11.5% for fifth.  The two dropping out after the first ballot were as expected Senator Steve Martin and former state senator Jeannemarie Davis.  Davis actually beat Martin 7.2% to 5.5%.

Here is the raw weighted numbers:

Jackson 3732.31 (31.3)

Stimpson 1798.43 (15.1)

Stewart 1769.14 (14.8)

Snyder 1739.17 (14.6)

Lingamfelter 1375.18 (11.5)

Davis 861.68 (7.2)

Martin 662.1 (5.5)

6:22PM:

Awaiting the results but there is a major demonstration on the floor for Bishop Jackson with a smaller counter-demonstration for Pete Snyder.  Jackson clearly has the enthusiasm of those who support him.  We’ll see…

Now the Stimpson forces are out but not in Jackson numbers.  Same for the Stewart people. Unconfirmed reports say that no one got more than 40% and third ballot will occur.  There also are many delegates have left but the weighted vote remains the same.  There was a paper airplane that went from one side of the Coliseum to the other.  Who says we couldn’t have liberated Benghazi!

6:40PM:

Excitement is building!  I just got hit with a paper airplane – it hurt a bit, too!  I met both Del. Habeeb (I told him I prayed for him once a month!) who is an attorney with the prestigious Gentry Locke firm in Roanoke.  Also met for the first time former Del. Janis.  I admire Del. Janis very much primarily due to his confession of faith in Jesus Christ at an African-American church in January 2011.

6:50PM:

Unconfirmed numbers show a substantial Jackson lead:

4562.05 weighted votes for Bishop Jackson with 38.2%.

Pete Snyder brought his campaign from near death with a second place showing – 2071.09 with Corey Stewart closely behind at 1999.51 weighted votes.  This would mean that Susan Stimpson, second place after the first vote, is out along with Del. Lingamfelter.

UPDATE:  If true, this means that Jackson has a good chance of winning unless the anti-Jackson vote picks one candidate to get behind.  Stewart is so polarizing that it is hard to see the anti-Jackson vote doing that but maybe Snyder could get that support.  I think Snyder is the only one that can beat Jackson.  It is like these Southern primaries where the leader had to win on the first primary or face being beat by the second place, buoyed by the other candidates’ supporters.  I heard from a Snyder delegate that Lingamfelter had endorsed Snyder so maybe that is the establishment trying to keep Jackson from winning.

Again, these are not confirmed numbers!

UPDATE AGAIN: Will Tom White treat Sandy to fish and chips at Penny Lane Pub for all this an analysis!

7:17PM:

The numbers are very close to what we said earlier.  Lingamfelter and Stimpson are out of the running.  I am hearing that others are trying to gang up on Jackson.  Jackson is reportedly upset about it.  Lingamfelter did endorse Snyder.

8:07PM:

Martha Bonita, the Fauquier County farmer whose issues Del. Lingamfelter came out for Corey Stewart.  The story is the anti-establishment tone of the convention – Obenshain was a degree of nostalgia but I am told that the senator had sometimes defied his party too.  (Bell was definitely anti-establishment)  I see the Jackson and Snyder, neither of whom have ever heard public office before, vote as clearly anti-establishment.

Pending!  I think either Jackson wins on this ballot or Snyder wins on the final one.

8:14PM:

A huge cheer arose just a moment ago from the Pete Snyder section.  Now they have started a brief demonstration.

8:28PM:

Is it ominous for Jackson? Cheering, I mean loud cheering from the Snyder delegation and the Jackson forces are quiet.

UPDATE: I heard someone say:  One more ballot to go!  Could be bad news for Jackson.

I think it is between Pete Snyder and Bishop Jackson.

8:48PM:

Shouts from the Pete demonstration that Corey Stewart had endorsed Pete Snyder.  If so, that means we could see a huge comeback for Snyder who positioned himself as the one that no one hated and the last one standing.  But it is not a sure thing.  Jackson could still win.  We have no numbers.

9:00PM:

Now flyers are out saying both Corey Stewart and the AG nominee Mark Obenshain have endorsed Pete Snyder.  (Official blog rubbing it in: VR endorsed Bishop Jackson and Pete Snyder for first place tie!)

9:27PM:

It’s official!  Jackson nearly had a majority with 49.7% and Snyder is a strong second with 30.6%.  Stewart is OUT!  Fourth ballot.

Sandy must go early but I think Jackson will eek it out in a victory.  I am hearing that some of the Pete endorsements are not authorized but that is an unconfirmed report.  I cannot imagine Snyder would do that.  Signing off until tomorrow.

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than nuclear
weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean Communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are more affected by human activity than by scientifically documented cyclical changes in the earth’s climate. Public policy should be based on “An Inconvenient Truth.”

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, and that being homosexual is natural and normal.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS was invented originally by the government to destroy minorities and is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can’t teach fourth graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex and alternative lifestyles.

9. You have to believe that hunters don’t care about nature, but environmental activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

But for first time in many months, the conservative bloc has fallen below 40 percent. This has rattled the coalition.

“The polls show that Merkel’s Christian Democrats are vulnerable,” said Niels Annen, an analyst at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is affiliated with the Social Democrats.

Ignore the “conservative” label; no true conservative junks a perfectly good currency like the Deutschmark without some sort of popular support or referendum.  It’s Tweedledee.  But Tweedledum is not doing much better:

Yet the scandals have not benefited the Social Democrats. The latest polls give them only 24 percent.

There are two other parties, the Free Democrats, a pro business and somewhat libertarian party, and the Greens, the environmental wacko party.  More Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  But there is a new gunslinger in town – the Alternative for Germany.  They are worrisome to Merkel and her coalition.  I cannot understand why Germans find Merkel so popular.  She has used the Germans for a piggy bank to bail out the other euro nations.  However, the AfD are coming on strong:

The AfD leadership, consisting largely of middle-aged professionals and former Christian Democrats, wants Germany to give up the euro. They are convinced that euro zone is economically and financially too diverse to hold together. They are also critical of the bailout packages in which Germany is the main guarantor.

“The AfD damages Merkel’s conservatives,” said Mr. Spreng. This euro-skeptical party could take as much as 4 percent of the votes from the conservatives but also the opposition, according to Allensbach, a polling institute.

The Jedi Knights for liberty in Europe might be outnumbered and outgunnned by the Galactic Empire but remember, it was the little Ewoks that make it possible to destroy the Death Star and thus the Empire.

***: Doc will be promoting the MTP on his show, TheBlaze.com on Thursday from 6-9am!!

Usually, what happens in these “Europe” referenda, we have the business community (especially the banks), rock stars, community leaders, supermodels probably too, and of course the Tweedledee and Tweedledum political parties all united to support whatever the EU needs to pass.  But in Ireland for example, the first time, the people actually won the referendum.  Of course the EU elites never respect any vote that goes against them.  So they voted again and unfortunately the EU got the vote it wanted.

But here in the UK, admittedly somewhat anecdotal, according to Clive Crook, there seems to be a true constituency for the UK to leave the EU.  (This might be the impetus for Scotland to leave the UK and rejoin its place among the nations of the world, albeit a liberal socialist one)

In an article in the Times last week, Nigel Lawson, a former Tory chancellor of the exchequer (and no knee-jerk Little Englander), said he expected nothing from the renegotiation and would be voting for exit. Several other former ministers have said the same.

Here’s the surprise: These interventions weren’t greeted as reckless or sensational, as they once would have been. Suddenly, exit is on the political agenda. Much of the City has turned Euro-skeptic as a reaction to what many see as a vindictive regulatory assault from Brussels. U.K. businesses used to be strongly pro-EU, but that’s no longer so. What once might have seemed an idle or even absurd threat has become a real possibility.

There will be perhaps (there is time to rally the pro-EU forces) be chinks in the armo(u)r and thus not a united front for the EU.  And the EU’s intentions to form a superempire might not sit well for Britons.  And if the fears of no more free trade can be disproven, than there is not much to say for Britain joining the illegitimate EU super state.

As free trade becomes the global norm, the benefits of open access to Europe’s markets are less and less confined to EU members. Cameron, visiting President Barack Obama in Washington this week, discussed the proposed U.S.-EU trade pact, among other things. The U.S. has signed free-trade agreements that span the globe. The U.K. could do the same.

And I would add, even though I hate it, is that the WTO can prevent punitive tariffs put forth by the EU in retaliation for a British exit.  So there’s no reason for the UK to be once again a sovereign nation.  Again, we need a slick and happy ad campaign to show people what life will be like when Britain controls its own destiny.

For months, the CDU and the FDP have sought to ignore the Alternative for Germany in the hopes that it would simply disappear as so many anti-euro movements have in the past. Instead, though, the party has quickly grown. Earlier this month, it surpassed the 10,000 member mark — just seven weeks after its official founding — and it has attracted widespread interest among the German electorate.

OOPS!  It’s worse – members and even a state parliamentarian have defected to the new party!

While no parliamentarians have yet abandoned the CDU, the Alternative for Germany has proven adept at attracting lower-ranking CDU and FDP members. Just last week, a state lawmaker with the FDP in Hesse named Jochen Paulus switched parties.

And AfD will be on the ballot in every German Lander (state) for the September General Election!

“Alternative for Germany” (AfD), which wants the country to quit the euro and reintroduce the deutsche mark, said it would found its 16th and final regional association on Sunday – a requirement to be able to contest national votes.

AfD is the alternative for Germany – the liberty alternative.  To paraphrase Emile Zola, Liberty is on the March and nothing can stop it!

The price tag for the Washington Redskins training camp and attached park area has pushed about $800,000 past the original $10 million appropriation from Richmond, prompting questions from City Council members over whether the Richmond Economic Development Authority, which is building the facility, has the authority to approve the extra spending.

I knew it was going to happen.  I blogged on this; so I must say:  I told you so.  Now if I ever run for supervisor, check me for a fever but one thing for sure:  NO sweetheart deals for private entities on my watch absent ironclad assurances (such as special taxes or collateral or special fees or mortgages) that the taxpayer will not be screwed.  No calls from governors or mayors or civic leaders will change my mind.

Apparently County Commissioner Susan Baird is a friendly voice (wonder if she was audited?):

Dearest Friends of the County and the world,

My greatest wish (among so many others…) is for the U.S. to get out of the  U.N.  Or should we say that the U.N. get out of the U.S.

The good news is that we have taken one small step by discontinuing our  membership to ICLEI, the United Nations initiative to establish Agenda 21 in United States’ cities and counties (Local Governments for Sustainability).

I have asked Mr. Chris Bird (head of the county Environmental Protection Department) to also send them a letter requesting that they  remove Alachua County from their list of members on their website.  I  should get that next.

Our next important step  is to get John Martin, Jean Calderwood  and Dean Cheshire elected to the county commission.  Imagine what the  four of us will accomplish!  If we do not get this done, I will guarantee you, member of ICLEI or not, the commission  will align with Agenda 21  philosophy  more than ever before.

Fifty days to a better four years or a worse four years.  Our actions will  determine that outcome.

Susan Baird