Glenn Nye who will mourn you when you are gone?

Last night the President Obama was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart being presidentially unfunny and trying to rally his base to get out the vote. Virginia’s own representative Tom Perriello received a special shout out from the President, in hopes of throwing some support to Tom who is embattled in one of our country’s most highly watched races.

Nye, baby, Nye... make your mother sigh.

A short drive from Perriello’s district is Virginia’s 2^nd district, where the latest polls have Congressman Glenn Nye in a statistical dead heat with Scott Rigell. How come Obama did not send a little love Glenn’s way too?

Glenn Nye never did anything for the President. Tom Perriello voted with the President’s ambitious agenda despite the fact he knew it would hurt him back home in Virginia. (Ironically, he is running against a man named Robert Hurt whose campaign signs read, “Hurt Congress.” I can’t help but giggle like a little girl every time I see one.) Abandoning his party on health care, bail outs, and the environment, Nye is the perfect example of why we struggle to have a moderate majority in this country. Toe the line, or your own party won’t fight hard for you and the other party still won’t vote for you. The worst part about being an ‘independent’ in American Politics is probably the loneliness.

Hampton Roads Tea Party proves itself even more ineffective

I am not sure why they are trying anymore. The Hampton Roads Tea Party ceased to be relevant after the primaries. They backed the wrong guy in Mr. Ben “Obama is making our country into Cuba” Loyola. Want some helpful advice for the future… endorse the guy with millions of dollars who is close friends with our popular governor and I promise you will go far.

After their boy Loyola lost the primary, the Tea Party was scrambling for relevancy, and luckily for them Scott Rigell was looking for more conservative credentials to beat off critics who did not much like his donations to Obama’s campaign. From this needy confluence of desire to remain important sprung the watered down oath that Scott signed with the Hampton Roads Tea Party.

Now their leader, Karen Hurd, is calling on ‘Keeping it real Kenny Golden’ to step out of the race lest he detract votes from Scott’s base and give the election to Congressman Nye. Ironically CNU political analyst Quinton Kidd says that polling data shows Kenny is actually pulling from Nye’s moderate supporter base.

My advice, Kenny: finish what you started, but if you want to really stick it to the establishment for going with the money, then drop out and endorse Nye. Either way you can be instrumental in telling the Tea Party that they don’t have a home here and I would vote for that.

A sad day for the Norfolk Police department

While still reeling from the loss of one of its best and brightest, Officer Victor Decker, the Norfolk Police Department will see one of its most corrupt sent to jail. Retired Detective Ford was found guilty yesterday of two counts of extortion and one count of lying to the FBI. Ford took tens of thousands of dollars while working as a homicide detective in exchange for getting criminals breaks in whatever way he could.

Unfortunately, while this matter is now over for him, the City must continue to deal with the fall out of his fraud, which will undoubtedly be a review of all past case work. Lawyers from a high profile murder investigation he worked are calling for charges to be dismissed. Ford was previously accused of forcing confessions in this case, and in light of everything else he did, that seems highly probable.

Police officers fill an amorphous and underappreciated niche in our lives. It’s a role that requires considerable tact, flexibility, and sound judgment. It’s also an institution that has seen its public image eroded over the decades, because of the actions of the corruptible few despite the efforts of the commendable majority. Few people have the moral character needed to serve and protect the public and our fickle priorities, selfish motivations, and propensity to endanger those about us.

By all accounts Victor Decker was one of those rare few. All along the Downtown beat, despite those ridiculous Segways, Officer Decker was known for his kindness, effectiveness, and caring. Multiple employees of the various establishments up and down Granby had stories to offer up of how he walked them to their cars, gave out hugs, and generally put his best face forward for the NPD.

It bothers me that the mockery of policing that is Detective Ford was given the top headline above Victor Decker on today’s front page. I hope he is ashamed of that as well, but even more I hope we all forget about this guy. Instead we should all focus on the 2009 officer of the year that was Victor Decker and we should all take a moment to appreciate the honest hard-working men and women who help keep order in the craziness that is our human experiment.

The Daily Press has a section of local mug shots

I am not sure what’s really going on here. This seems to be a sort of “Hot or Not” for local criminals; The Daily Press Guilty or Not contest. The worst part is that the featured persons have not been found guilty, merely arrested and processed. Now, whether guilty or not, their local paper has humiliated them for no discernable purpose other than cheap Internet traffic stats.

What on earth could be the purpose of posting all these photos other than shaming these people, or exacerbating people’s fear about the numbers of criminals in our midst? Either way I am not a fan, Daily Press. Why not instead of running this trash you investigate a story that will enrich people’s lives?

Kerry Dougherty has a glowing review of Albert Teich Jr.

I am glad she liked one person. I am also grateful for the years of service Mr. Teich gave to the city of Norfolk.

This guy is a jack ass but brings up an interesting point

Tommy Arney seems to have a history of running his mouth incorrectly, inappropriately, and untimely. Yet, he also seems to still have businesses that people go to, so go figure. Tommy boy recently accused the City’s bar task force of using, “Gestapo like tactics.” I really don’t need to read the rest of the article to know this is a dumb thing to say, however I read on out of curiosity and found this.

“No other city in South Hampton Roads regulates its restaurants as strictly as Norfolk, and that may be driving business to other cities.”

I do not know if it is making businesses go to other cities, but I do know this: I don’t like Downtown. Our Downtown is one long continuous string of pretention, lack luster food, Jersey Shore-like atmospheres, and a general feeling that there is nothing unique about Norfolk. One would guess that Norfolk’s main cultural draw is consumerism if they were to base their assessment on Downtown alone.

I am not saying that coincidence is correlation here, but I am going to say this: If we have a City that so tightly controls the economic growth (which sadly drives the cultural growth) we had better be sure that we trust those in authority to do so in a manner that reflects our desires. Last time I looked at the city council I did not see many folks I have a lot in common with.

We complain that there is nothing except bars in Downtown, but we let it come to this. We let them plan Downtown as nothing but an auxiliary meeting room for conference attendees staying around Downtown. We are letting them continue to do so. Ask for something better and I promise you will get it. But you have to ask.

Power corrupts but only those who think they deserve it

Here is an article on something we all kind of know but it is still nice to see written in smart words.