The Daily Progress of Charlottesville reported Friday that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a brief in federal court this month siding with Rothamel. Cuccinelli wrote that as long as the seal is not used in a “fraudulent or misleading” manner, its use is protected by law and the First Amendment. Fluvanna County may have shot themselves in the foot by including “unless such use is specifically authorized by law” in its ordinance.
Additionally, county attorneys came up with this strange analogy in its own brief: “Mr. Rothamel has no more right to use, for his own purposes, the county’s seal than he would to drive a county automobile or build a home in a county park.”
It’d be a shame if these attorneys have a right to use county money to defend such a ridiculous policy.
In a piece published Sunday, RTD scorned federal regulators for hurting small businesses with policies enacted after a slew of toy recalls and foodborne outbreaks a few years ago. Their solution? Support the tea party:
“The more establishment parts of the GOP are often comfortable with both big government and big business. When it comes to rolling back Washington, the tea party has done much of the heavy lifting lately. If anyone reins in the regulatory excesses that are smothering small businesses built by bohemians in Birkenstocks, it could be the rabble-rousers of the radical right. Cheese and tea, anyone?”
Timeliness and attribution, anyone? The law that empowered the Food and Drug Administration after the outbreaks was signed into law seven months ago. The quotes from an FDA official and cheesemaker are from six months ago. RTD’s only more recent example of federal overreach was an artisanal cheesemaker that the feds closed nine months ago.
Worse yet, RTD incorrectly said that cheesemaker is in Wisconsin rather than Washington, and the unattributed quotes are lifted from The Washington Post and Reason magazine.
This outdated, lazily written free marketing for the tea party brings new meaning to the phrase “Do you want cheese with that whine?”
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor, R-7th, supports a short-term debt-ceiling deal for before the 2012 elections. “Mr. Cantor called the president’s insistence on a deal that carries through the election purely political and indefensible,” the Journal reported. But a month ago he opposed one, saying, “I don’t see how multiple votes on a debt ceiling increase can help get us to where we want to go. It is my preference that we do this thing one time. … Putting off tough decisions is not what people want in this town.”
When Speaker John Boehner released his debt-ceiling plan on Monday, Cantor gave it a, um, thumbs-up by calling it “a well-thought-out and reasoned plan where no side gets what it wants.” That's a ringing endorsement.
Also on Monday, Cantor was caught contradicting himself on CNBC. He attacked Sen. Harry Reid’s debt-ceiling plan because it accounts for declining spending on military operations overseas, before host Larry Kudlow reminded Cantor that both the Republican budget and debt plans also have those cuts:
Cantor: "What Sen. Reid’s plan says is we’re going to raise the debt ceiling $2.4 trillion and we are also going to cut spending but what he does is counts over a trillion dollars in spending that is assumed to decrease and go away anyway which is the spending associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Kudlow: "Yes, but isn’t that in the Paul Ryan baseline also, which is the baseline for Cut, Cap and Balance."
Cantor: "But, but, but … absolutely it is."
It is no wonder that a majority of Americans, independents, and Republicans believe Republicans in Congress aren’t doing enough to strike a deal.
It won’t get much better thanks to Eric No We Cantor, today’s Worst Virginian in the World!
