Opinion

    We’re approaching the midway point of the 2008 session, commonly known as “crossover.”  Before Valentine’s Day arrives, both the House and the Senate will have completed work on all the bills submitted by their own members, and also will have approved their respective versions of amendments to Virginia’s biennial budget.

    Although the weekend’s weather was quite mild, cool rather than cold, the big chill we had last week made me think of a story I did in January.

    I had heard that the city and county “Democrats” were having Weed at a joint meeting at the Welcome Center. Wondering if the sheriff knew about this, I took a camera and notebook and went there to check it out.

Be careful when driving

    Once again, our family has gone through a situation that we had hoped would never happen. As all parents know, when your children start driving, you hope they will draw the line between common sense and being reckless.

    Unfortunately, we cannot be with them at all times and remind them of the consequences of a foolish mistake.

This past week the House of Representatives considered the so called “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”.  This legislation, which will cost the American taxpayers more than $1.1 trillion including interest, is just another example of wasteful Washington spending at its worst disguised as an economic stimulus bill.  The goal of this legislation was to provide tax relief to families and invest in infrastructure.  Unfortunately, the legislation has been loaded up with pork barrel spending like $600 million to buy new cars for government workers, $44 million for

Are there 1,840 things wrong with Virginia?  That’s how many bills legislators filed for this year’s General Assembly session.  Every one of those bills proposes some change to the Code of Virginia, the laws that govern our commonwealth.  Every bill, however, will not become law.

    I’m not sure exactly what the “Democrat’” stimulus plan will stimulate beyond the national debt. It threatens to open a deficit chasm that will make the Bush deficits look like ruts in an unpaved country road by comparison. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ought to think twice about antagonizing China with accusations of currency manipulation as we are going to need them to buy up all this debt the Treasury will be issuing. But, maybe Geithner didn’t really mean that and just made an honest mistake.

    President Barack Obama’s inauguration, last week, was historic. For one thing, he’s America’s first black president. It’s historic because there are still people alive who can remember a time when the only way a black man would have gotten into the Oval Office would have been to clean it.

There may not have been any snow on Capitol Square this week, but temperatures were low and the winds were high enough to make them seem even lower.  Those who had to venture outside moved a lot more quickly as a result.

Displaying good timing and cleverness, members of the Virginia Credit Union League – credit union employees from across the state – sported long red knitted scarves as they made their way around Capitol Square.  The scarves were impossible to miss, making the credit union employees simultaneously notable and warm.

If there's one hallmark that should define the new Congress and the new Administration, it's that we are ushering in a new era of accountability for our government, our corporations, and ourselves. The era of blank-check bailouts is over.

President Obama said in his inauguration speech, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world…This is the price and the promise of citizenship."