Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

U.S. House of Representatives, Virginia’s 10th District, 2014

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Seal of the U.S. House of Representatives
Seal of the U.S. House

In the race to represent Virginia’s Tenth District in the United States House of Representatives, five candidates—Diane Blais (IG), Delegate Barbara Comstock (R-VA 34th), Brad Eickholt (I), Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville), and William ‘Bill’ Redpath (L)—are vying for an open seat. The Tenth District encompasses Clarke County, Frederick County, Loudoun County, the cities of Manassas and Winchester, and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties. It is currently represented by seventeen-term Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA 10th), who was first elected in 1980 and is the longest serving congressional representative from Virginia. Wolf announced in December that he would retire at the end of this term.

All seats in the House of Representatives are up for election every two years. There are 435 seats, representing each of the fifty states proportional to their population as recorded in the most recent national census. There are an additional six non-voting delegate seats that represent U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

The Republican Party currently holds a 233-199 majority over the Democratic Party in the House, and three seats are vacant. Virginia has eleven seats in the House, with eight held by Republicans and three held by Democrats.

Read more . . .

Virginia and Loudoun Ballot Issues, 2014

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Yes or No
Yes or No

Citizens of Virginia will be voting on one statewide ballot issue in this year’s general election, which would change and add text to the Constitution of the Commonwealth. The state constitution permits the state Senate or the House of Delegates to propose amendments, and, after having been approved by a majority vote in both houses, they are then presented to the people for approval. If a majority of voters vote ‘yes’ in the referendum, the state constitution is amended as specified.

Additionally, citizens of Loudoun County, Virginia, will be voting on three bond referendums in this year’s election. Virginia’s local governments are required to hold a referendum to get the voters’ permission to issue bonds on behalf of the city or county. Bonds are usually used by governments to raise money for large capital expenditures when particular projects cannot be funded through general funds and tax revenues.

Bonds are debt. When they are sold, the issuing government receives an immediate influx of cash from the purchasers. But, like a bank loan, all of that money must be repaid over time (plus interest). As such, bonds should be used sparingly, and only for large, unusual projects where funding them directly from the general fund is not possible.

Read more . . .

Attorney General Holder to Resign

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Updated
Eric Holder
Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder (D) is announcing his resignation today.

Holder was appointed Attorney General by President Barack Obama (D) on January 20, 2009—the first day of his presidency. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 2, 2009, by a bipartisan 75-21 vote. Holder is the first African American to hold the office.

During a rocky and corrupt tenure at the Department of Justice, Holder has repeatedly stonewalled Congressional investigations of wrongdoing within the agency. In the most notable case, Holder refused to provide department documents related to illegal gun-running operations carried out between 2006 and 2011 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE). He also committed perjury by lying to Congress about when he found out about the operation, which was dubbed ‘Fast and Furious,’ and then wrongfully accused his predecessor of having been briefed on it.

The gun-running itself occurred during both the George W. Bush (R) and Obama administrations, but Holder’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation led the U.S. House of Representatives to vote by a bipartisan 255-67 majority to find him in contempt. Holder was the first sitting cabinet-level official to ever be found in contempt of Congress. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen Jr. declined to pursue criminal charges in the case, although Machen was part of Holder’s Justice Department and was subject to an obvious conflict of interest. Holder himself declined to follow the appropriate procedure and appoint an independent special prosecutor in the case, for the obvious reason that he would himself be the subject of the investigation.

Holder also presided over the Justice Department’s unprecedented harassment of media outlets, seizing two months of phone records from the Associated Press (AP) and obtaining a warrant to read Fox News Channel reporter James Rosen’s emails, even labeling him as a ‘co-conspirator’ in a State Department document leak. These blatant First Amendment violations were never investigated or rectified, and nobody in the Justice Department has yet faced charges. Holder did claim to feel a “creeping sense of personal remorse” about the incidents. The Department of Justice under Holder was also charged with investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s unconstitutional political targeting of conservative non-profit organizations. That investigation has also resulted in no charges.

It is expected that Holder will remain in office until his successor has been appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

2014 Endorsement and Election Plans

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VoteI’m happy to announce that I will be continuing my annual election coverage here on Off on a Tangent as we approach November 4. Beginning in the next week or two, I will be posting my endorsements in every race and question on my local ballot, and there will be an increase in general election-related posts from here on out.

On the evening of November 4, I will also provide live results for each race I am watching, along with a live-blog. This live coverage is moving back to the ‘main’ site; I will no longer have a dedicated election site at another address. Live coverage will begin when the polls close at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, and will continue until all of my followed races are called, or until 1:00 a.m. If 1:00 a.m. passes with races still open, coverage will continue as time permits in the following days.

The home page ‘leader’ widget in now focused on the special coverage of the election. Today it contains placeholders for my endorsements (which will become links to them once they are posted), a list of key dates including a link for Virginia voter registration, and a feed of the most recent election-related posts.

This will be the tenth year that Off on a Tangent will carry political endorsements and live election coverage.

Join the Battle for Net Neutrality

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Battle for the NetIn 1995, I created my first web site. It was not much to look at, but the experience was empowering. I had my own little spot on the Internet, and I could do anything I wanted with it. From its earliest days, the Internet was built to be open. My little web site was entitled to just as much availability and access as CNN’s, or Google’s, or the White House’s. Of course there are money factors involved; I can’t afford as powerful a server or as much bandwidth as these large and well-funded organizations. But if a billion people wanted to go look at my stupid little site, and I was willing to beef-up my infrastructure to handle it, nobody could stop them.

This principle is the principle of ‘Net Neutrality.’ Under this principle, nobody has the right to preference some content at the expense of other content.

Today, Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast want to create a tiered Internet . . . one where sites like mine get slowed-down in favor of other sites that can afford to pay for preferential treatment. This system would create a large barrier for new sites, especially those that require a lot of bandwidth. Sure, YouTube and Netflix can probably afford to pay for speedy access into your home, but what about the next YouTube and the next Netflix? How will scrappy start-ups—those who don’t have billions of dollars to spend on ISP kick-backs—be able to compete with the incumbent power-players? And if Verizon and Comcast get to decide which sites are fast and which sites are slow, what will stop them from deciding to limit or block access to their competitors as the legacy cable businesses begin to lose money?

Can you imagine if we had allowed phone companies to block Internet access over their phone lines back in the 1990s? Can you imagine if we allowed power companies to restrict what devices and appliances you can use in your home? That is the sort of control that Verizon, Comcast, and others want to have over your Internet connection.

I am proud to join with countless companies and individuals all across the Internet in the Battle for the Net. This is one of the rare cases where there is a real need for federal intervention (under the authority to regulate interstate and international commerce). Congress must act to protect Net Neutrality and ensure that the Internet remains a vibrant, open, and accessible incubator for the ideas and businesses that will drive our economy in the future. Please join the campaign. Contact the Federal Communications Commission and your representatives in Congress and let them know that you like the Internet, and you would like to keep it.

The views expressed in this post are mine and mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, Web.com.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.