Dear Virginia’s 11th District,

You have elected a moron.

Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Democratic congressman from Virginia, has argued to his constituents that Americans shouldn’t be allowed to wield Stinger missiles “capable of downing commercial aircraft” even though such weapons are already illegal.

“I have been accused of trying to dismantle the Second Amendment for simply asking whether high-powered, military-style semi-automatic firearms with large-capacity magazines — which were used in the D.C. sniper murders, the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and the mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown — should be readily available to the general public,” Connolly wrote in a letter recently disseminated to constituents concerned about gun rights.

“Or for wondering whether the Second Amendment applies to weapons such as the FIM-92 Stinger missile launcher, a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile platform capable of downing commercial aircraft.”

A Stinger missile launcher is already considered a banned “destructive device” under the Gun Control Act of 1968.

You could have had Ken Vaughn, who understands the intent of the Second Amendment. But instead you chose a moderate RINO in the primary, and ultimately, a pathetic loser who has no understanding of the Constitution.

It’s instructive how Connolly invokes weapons favored by terrorists in his argument that Americans should be deprived of their rights.

It’s also instructive how he attempts to invoke fear by drawing a disingenuous comparison between a fairly common semi-automatic rifle used by such “dangerous” people as the kid who used an AR15 to protect his sister, the shop owners in LA who used these weapons do defend life and property during the Rodney King riots and property owners who used them to fend off looters after Hurricane Andrew.

Countless lives and millions of dollars in property have been protected by Americans with so-called “assault” weapons, but Gerry Connolly would rather compare these courageous Americans to terrorists in his zeal to justify his complete disregard for Americans’ fundamental rights and the Constitution he took and oath to support and defend.

I would laugh and say, “you deserve this, because you voted for it” – but unfortunately your poor decisionmaking affects the rest of us. Your stupid choices affect my rights.

May you be damned for it.

Establishment wins again

What’s it called when you do the same thing time after time, but expect different results?

The establishment mainstream won pretty much all over Virginia today.

With 99% of the vote counted, Allen had 65% of the vote. His nearest rival, tea party leader Jamie Radtke, had 23%, state legislator Bob Marshall had 7% and Chesapeake minister E.W. Jackson had 5%.

Allen will face Democrat Tim Kaine, both former governors, in the Nov. 6 election. The former Democratic National Committee chairman was unopposed for his party’s nomination.

Republican incumbent Congressmen Bob Goodlatte, Randy Forbes and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor also brushed aside primary challengers. In a battle between newcomers in northern Virginia’s 11th District, Christopher Perkins, a former Green Beret and retired Army colonel, won the right to challenge two-term Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly in November. Perkins won 64% of the vote over traffic engineer Ken Vaughn.

And the disgusting, corrupt Moran once again rode his name recognition to victory over Bruce Shuttleworth.

Well, congratulations, Col. Perkins. I hope you don’t turn out to be the vapid RINO you appeared during the campaign. I hope we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

But I won’t hold my breath.

The Perkins Myth

We have heard it again and again from the Chris Perkins campaign – the claim that Ken Vaughn wants to cut defense by 35 percent.

The attacks come often, and seem to be the lynchpin of Perkins’ crusade against Ken. Much like his insistence on using his military service as THE reason the residents of Virginia’s 11th district should vote for him, the continued assertion about Ken’s plans to allegedly decimate our defenses appear to be THE issue he’s using to attack Ken.

Problem is the claim is false.

In Ken’s words:

These numbers are a part of a “sample budget” on my website. It is not a “proposed budget”, it is merely my best guess as to how Congress might prioritize items, if it were to decide to live within its means. These cuts may seem drastic, but remember, we currently borrow 40 cents of every dollar we spend.

I do not have a vendetta against any program. My mission is to reintroduce ethics into our budget process. We have a moral obligation to live within our means. This means that I am willing to negotiate about where we spend our limited resources. My opponents refuse to respect this basic moral tenet and instead choose to make false claims about my positions.

…I do not have a vendetta against any program; but we must live within our means. We can achieve this if we keep our focus on shared objectives. That is why we need to look at our budget from a zero baseline – zero out the budget for every program and then add money back in to reflect our priorities, with the understanding that as soon as we hit the deficit target, the spending will stop.

I believe we will find a great deal of agreement on our spending priorities if we follow this approach. Specifically, I believe we would find shared priorities as follows, in order of importance:

1.    Pay interest on the national debt
2.    Honor all self-funded trust funds. In other words, Social Security taxes should be dedicated to Social Security; Medicare taxes should be dedicated to Medicare, gas taxes should be dedicated to transportation; etc.
3.    Fund defense at least at its lowest level since WWII
4.    Fund essential government services
5.    Honor our commitments to our veterans
6.    Honor our commitments to our civilian retirees
7.    Fund other programs

As we move down the list, I suspect that there will be more pressure to negotiate among competing priorities. It is impossible for me to know what the final result of Congress will be, but I do believe every program will have to take some cut as compared to current spending levels. These are difficult decisions, but we have a moral obligation to live within our means. My opponent has refused to admit to this basic fact and he has refused to provide any proposal that significantly decreases our spending.

We need to stop nation building and we should not be the world’s police force. If we focus on defense spending on national defense, we can significantly reduce defense spending. However, we cannot balance the budget with defense cuts alone.

So could we please stop with the lies already, Perkins campaign? We have two days before the primaries. If you feel you have to lie and mislead in order to gain an advantage, there’s something very wrong with your strategy.

Down to the wire

I know this has become the “All Poe, All the Time” blog, but now that the saga has ended, and Poe gets some mental help for his lying problem, we can move on.

Time to get down to business. We’re down to the wire here, people, and Ken Vaughn has been steadily gaining momentum and support.

Ken has garnered a bunch of endorsements and contributions recently, including a blog that initially endorsed his opponent and then switched its support.

Why?

There are several reasons for this decision. First, the Perkins campaign has failed to run a race that proves that Chris could “take it” to Gerry Connolly if he was the Republican nominee. Moreover, the recent acknowledgement by Chris that he is pro-choice is a polarizing issue that has caused grave concern among many party activists and will dampen the support he will receive from grassroots conservatives who need a nominee that shares their conservative values.

What is even more disconcerting is the lack of a ground game by the Perkins campaign. Whether it is their voter identification program or the lack of signs in the median, the Perkins campaign has been unable to prove that they have the organization and campaign strategy necessary to win in November. The fact that there is a growing concern that Ken Vaughn might actually win on June 12^th, shows how weak and inept the Perkins campaign strategy is and how the senior management of their campaign has failed to put a structure together that sufficiently demonstrates his operation has what it takes to succeed. ”Team Perkins” has many failings chiefly among them is he has not hired a campaign manager, Chris has decided to give the keys to his campaign over to a corrupt consultant with a track record of running dirty campaigns. See this press report about his previous track record. This consultant named Tyler Harber has not only taken Chris a new comer to the political world to the proverbial woodshed and suckered him for all the money that he is worth they haven’t developed a winning strategy. Looking at the FEC reports Prosper Group Tyler’s company and there contractors have been paid $97,850 from the Perkins Campaign. This is and unheard of amount to spend on Consulting in a primary! AND the best part is that’s only through April so since Tyler is averaging 11K a month from this candidate so I can’t wait to see what the next FEC reports show us.

[...]

Vaughn has personally asked me for my vote and explained to me his stances on the issues; this is more than I can say for Chris who has taken my vote for granted and subsequently lost it.

This is what happens when a campaign that is so sure it has the nomination in the bag, it becomes complacent.

But those aren’t the only differences between the two candidates. I urge you to take a look at the following, and see for yourselves.

Ken Vaughn is the true conservative in this race.  He’s not extreme. He’s not crazy. He’s liberty-minded, and common sense. He understands the Law of the Land and economic realities, and is willing to stand up for integrity, honesty and the Constitution.

If you live in Virginia’s 11th District, this is the time, folks!

Get out there and vote for a candidate who is the diametric opposite of the big-spending swine inhabiting that Congressional seat.

Get out there on June 12, and cast your vote for Ken Vaughn.

A slew of endorsements for Ken Vaughn

Just wanted to mention that our friend Ken Vaughn has been snagging a lot of great endorsements lately – from people who matter – from people who live in the 11th District – which I think is pretty awesome.

Those endorsements include:

• David Ray – State Central Committee member, 11th Congressional District
•  Geraldine Davie – Delegate to the Republican National Convention, Virginia’s 11th Congressional District
•  James Lightweis – Delegate to the Republican National Convention, Virginia’s 11th Congressional District
•  Steven Yeh – Former Congressional Candidate, 11th Congressional District
•  Jerry Geddes- Former Congressional Candidate, 11th Congressional District
• Terrence Boulden – African-American Coalition Chairman, Fairfax County Republican Committee
• Fredy Burgos – Burke Precinct Captain, 11th Congressional District

But that’s not all.  The Republican Liberty Caucus – the wing of the GOP that is dedicated to true freedom and liberty in every sense of the word – also gave Ken its nod, as did several conservative blogs, such as Mason Conservative, Crystal Clear Conservative, Just a Conservative Girl and School of Athens.

Go Ken!