Andrews thanks supporters

This in the mail this morning from the John Andrews for VA Senate campaign:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I want to personally thank each one of you for supporting my campaign for the 33rd District Senate Seat.

I continue to have a vision for better governance in Northern Virginia that would improve our roads and schools, keep taxes low and combat illegal immigration.

Unfortunately, not enough citizens came to the polls on May 19th and we were not successful. With record-low turnout, we fell short by only 113 votes.

I remain proud of the inclusionary, positive campaign we ran and feel enriched by the people that we met. Yet, I am not pleased with the 11th hour voter, suppression effort conducted by the Phillips Campaign to distort my record as School Board Chairman and to attempt to link me with certain gay rights groups. I took Mrs. Phillips at her word that her campaign would not engage in this kind of negative campaigning and was perhaps a bit too naive in believing that she would follow the letter and spirit of that pledge that we made to one another.
 
I will not give up. I have worked hard for over a decade in the public service in the School Board and have volunteered my time and resources to the community for many more years than that. I plan to continue to serve your families in my capacity with the Boy Scouts of America, on the Advisory Board of Shenandoah University and in many other ways… and you may see me again on the campaign trail when the time is right.

Thank you again for your hard work and support on my behalf. I will not forget it.

 
Sincerely,

John Andrews

Thank you, John. We appreciate your effort.

AQ’s torture manual – not exactly US MilSpec

The next time I hear some idiot blithely equivalize al Qaeda with our military (or our Revolutionary War ancestors) I’ll remind them of the material that each group considered important to train upon. Our military has manuals on code of conduct and how to make sure treatment of the enemy – even illegal combatants – stays within the bounds of humane behavior. AQ’s teaching people how to pluck out a person’s eyes or how to use a vice on their head.

This is the nature of the enemy in their own words. It would pay to recall that nature when evaluating the war.

Latest GOPStrawPolls now running

The latest GOPStrawPolls is now up and running. (You can cast your ballot here.) The polls just started but it’ amazing how heavily Fred Thompson is coming out ahead. The results at this hour are showing Fred at 33.7% of the vote with the closest competitor being Ron Paul at 23.4%. I’m having a real problem believing that last one but the polls just opened and there’s some opportunity in the short run to game the system.

What’s not amazing, at least to me, is the utter collapse in McCain support. The results show McCain at 0.9% having gotten just 59 out of 6475 ballots cast. The graph showing the strength of acceptability has McCain at dead last with a net acceptability rating of -61.7%. As Hugh Hewitt and company have been saying this past week, I think the Senator’s approach to the immigration issue isn’t sitting well with the people he’s looking to for votes. Personally, I don’t think it was rocket science to realize that but I’m not on the Senator’s staff, so…

I’ll check back in a day or so and see how things settle out.