Gun control’s “dead on arrival” prediction from House Republicans came true.
Richmond’s Pro-Life March Set To Rock The Capitol Tomorrow
On February 7, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., hundreds of pro-life advocates will march on the Capitol in opposition to Democrat’s late-term abortion bill and Governor’s Northam’s subsequent “infanticide” comments.
34 Democrats Vote Down Republican-Led Emergency Tax Relief
As Republicans remain unified behind tax relief, Democrats remain committed to emptying the pockets of middle-class Virginians.
When Will Governor Ralph Northam’s Cabinet Call For His Resignation?
As the racial controversy surrounding Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) continues, the question must be asked: When will his Cabinet join political leaders from both sides of the aisle in calling for his resignation?
During a press conference Saturday afternoon, Northam fought back against calls from nearly every elected official in the Commonwealth – both Democrat and Republican – in demanding for his resignation, letting Virginia move forward from a disgusting chapter in its history.
Photos were released on Friday depicting the governor dressed either in “blackface” or in a Ku Klux Klan uniform in his 1984 medical college yearbook, and of a yearbook Northam appeared in while at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in the early 1980s that included multiple nicknames, one of which was “Coonman,” a racial epithet.
Shortly after the first photo went viral, Governor Northam confirmed that it was him dressed as such, but would not say which one. However, he then recanted, claiming that he was not one of the two men that appeared in racist garb.
At the seemingly-cartoonish press conference, Northam stood by his apology to Virginians, but told a story about an instance in 1984 when he did appear in blackface at a “dance contest” in San Antonio, Texas, dressed as pop star Michael Jackson. He said he had “shoe polish” on his “cheeks” as a part of the costume.
“I have always liked Michael Jackson. I won the contest,” he said to a crowd of reporters, adding that he “learned to do the moonwalk.” When asked by one in the room if he could still moonwalk, he cracked a smile and looked for room to his left, alluding to wanting to try and demonstrate his rug-cutting ability in front of dozens of reporters and government officials. However, his wife, Pam, then said “inappropriate circumstances,” causing the governor to back off performing the iconic dance move.
On Sunday night during the Super Bowl, Governor Northam met with key staff members for an unscheduled meeting, apparently considering his next move. Protests continue to mount outside the Executive Mansion in downtown Richmond with hundreds calling for him to step down.
As for the future of Governor Northam’s term, which ends in January 2022, he said during the press conference, “If we get to the point where we feel that we’re not effective, that we’re not efficient, not only for our caucuses, but the Commonwealth of Virginia, then we will revisit this and make decisions.”
It has become evident that his position as the political leader of the Commonwealth is now ineffective. The governorship has become tarnished by Northam’s refusal to step down. All the while, Virginia still has business to do, and cannot continue to be marred by the racial controversy Northam ushered into the spotlight.
Nevertheless, will members of Northam’s Cabinet join lawmakers and elected officials across the Commonwealth and the United Stated in calling for his resignation?
His Cabinet is listed as the following: Chief of Staff Clark Mercer, Deputy Chief of Staff Suzette Denslow, Commonwealth Secretary Kelly Thomasson, Administration Secretary Keyanna Conner, Agriculture Secretary Bettina Ring, Commerce Secretary Brian Ball, Education Secretary Atif Qarni, Finance Secretary Aubrey Layne, Health and Human Resources Secretary Daniel Carey, Natural Resources Secretary Matthew Strickler, Homeland Security Secretary Brian Moran, Transportation Secretary Shannon Valentine, Veterans and Defense Secretary Carlos Hopkins, Workforce Advisor Megan Healy, and Counsel to the Governor Rita Davis.
Virginia Democrat Recants Support Of Controversial Late-Term Abortion Bill After Nationwide Backlash
Support for the bill that would repeal any meaningful protections for the unborn has waned over the past few days.
61,012,997 Unkept Promises: Virginia House Speaker Kirk Cox’s Pledge To Monique
In a rare and highly-emotional point of personal privilege, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) stepped off the dais Wednesday afternoon to remark on one of the most shocking pieces of legislation to be considered by the General Assembly in recent memory.
On Tuesday, a Democratic legislator in the Virginia House of Delegates spoke about a bill she introduced in the 2019 General Assembly session that would lead the Commonwealth towards the ways of New York in repealing restrictions on abortion, including terminations up until the moment of birth.
H.B. 2491, patroned by Delegate Kathy Tran (D-Springfield), would repeal restrictions on third trimester abortions, allowing abortion doctors to self-certify the necessity of late term procedures, eliminate informed consent requirements, repeal abortion clinic health and safety standards, permit late term abortions to be performed in outpatient clinics, remove ultrasound requirements, and eliminate Virginia’s 24-hour waiting period.
Although the legislation was not expected to pass during this year’s session, it represents a progressive policy vision embraced by the leaders of Virginia’s Democratic Party, including Governor Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, and Attorney General Mark Herring.
“I have been here almost 30 years,” Speaker Cox said, who relayed that he would be “delivering this speech from the same place I started…desk number 79.”
“A lot of you know I’m not the most spontaneous person in the world, and I’m not the most impulsive. I fully understand that this office comes with tremendous power. I fully understand that you must use that power wisely.”
“I know what I’m doing today. I know it’s a very big deal. This speech is about the number 61,012,997,” he said.
“That is, believe it or not, 50 times larger than all the men and women that have been lost to war in this country.”
“I gave a similar speech in 1996 when that number was 20 million. I gave another speech in 2000 and that number was 40 million. The last time I gave a speech in 2014, I know the number well. it was 54,600,549,” Speaker Cox relayed. “It is the number of abortions since 1973.”
“That number absolutely crushes me. That number absolutely overwhelms me. That number keeps me up at night,” he said, conveying great emotion.
Referencing Psalm 139, the speaker said, “You made all the delegator parts of my body. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Everyday of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day has passed.”
Referencing Hebrews 3:4, he added, “For every house has a builder, but the one that built everything is God.”
“Do you realize we’re made in the image of God?” Cox asked the House.
“One of [the] most astounding things, when I think about it, is the eye, because it’s the window on the whole world,” he said.
Continuing his floor speech, Cox added, “Your retina has 130 million rod-shaped cells, they detect light intensity…they transmit impulses to the brain by means of one million neuro-fibers. Those numbers are almost silly. How on Earth can a creator do that?”
“Nearby,” he added, “six million cone-shaped cells pick out color variation, and the one that amazes me the most, the eye can handle 500,000 messages, simultaneously.”
“We are no accident,” the speaker told the 99 other members of the House of Delegates.
“How about a baby?” he asked.
The speaker continued on, “Week four: The two optic nerves are forming the lens. Week eight: That retina I just began to talk about is forming. Week 16: The eye picks up light. Week 26: The end of the second trimester, that eye is fully formed and the eyelids open. And I think if you shine a flashlight on a mother’s stomach, you might just get a kick or a wiggle.”
“With the miracle of modern medicine, at 22 weeks, we [babies] now have a 20 percent survival rate,” he said. “What a blessing. Modern medicine…what would that be in five years, in 10 years, in 15 years, in 20 years?”
“On January the 22nd…I read the following headline – New York Passes Bill Expanding Abortion Access.”
“My heart just sank,” he remarked.
The bill allows women to seek abortions after a fetus is 24 weeks old if the mother’s life or health is threatened by the pregnancy, also making it legal for women to have an abortion at any time if the fetus is not viable. Moreover, abortion is moved to be regulated under public health law, rather than criminal law, and allows licensed nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and licensed midwives to conduct abortions.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) hailed the passage of the legislation as a “giant step forward.”
Following the development, the spire atop New York’s Freedom Tower, standing 1,776 feet above the ground, was lit bright pink in solidarity with the activists and lawmakers who helped push the monumental change.
“The freedom tower has two pools that mark 9/11,” Cox explained. “Around each is name of every person who was killed that day. Beside the names of 11 women, a carved stone says ‘and your unborn child.'”
The speaker then told a story about a woman he knows, named Monique, who works at the Capitol building. In 1995, her mother was expecting a third child when a doctor told her that the child would possibly be born with Down Syndrome, due to tests that were run.
“The doctor strongly suggested that she get an abortion,” Cox said about the woman’s mother, who then gave birth the girl, Monique.
The speaker explained that Monique said her mother had “powerful personal belief in life, and that was out of the question.”
“She chose to part ways with her doctor,” he said, “and to make a long story short, there were errors in the testing, false positives.”
“Monique, today, is a recently-graduated young woman of Mary Baldwin University working here at the Capitol, she is marrying her high school sweetheart in July, she’s headed to law school in the fall, she is grateful she told me that her parent’s convictions led them to choose life,” the speaker explained.
Monique was sitting in the House Gallery just one story above the lawmakers Wednesday afternoon. When Cox pointed her out, she received a standing ovation from most, but not all, of the delegates in quorum. Some Democrats chose to remain seated.
“I wish Governor Cuomo could hear Monique’s story,” Speaker Cox charged. “A lot of us think what happened in New York, is New York. So what does this have to do with Virginia?”
“Headline,” Cox continued, “January 27th – Northam Vows To Implement New York Version Of Abortion Law.”
Reading the first paragraph of the article, Cox recited, “Virginia Democratic leaders backed legislation repealing restrictions on third trimester late term abortions, repealing clinic health and safety standards, and eliminating informed consent requirements, among other provisions. They noted the measures were unlikely to pass in 2019, but Governor Northam vowed,” “words have meaning,” he added, “if Democrats take the Virginia House and Senate in November’s elections.
“Here’s what that means,” he set to explain, “this bill will allow a mother showing physical signs of labor to get an abortion.”
“We are really one small step from New York,” the speaker added.
“Did anyone in New York give a speech? Did anyone sound the alarm? Did anyone get out of their comfort zone to stop this? Where have I been since 2014? How did I ever let five years slip away without really doing anything?” Cox proclaimed.
“Here’s how…I made speeches numerous times, and I thought to myself ‘I’ve done my part.’ Every time I do that speech it’s controversial, it makes people extremely unconformable, they’re squirming, they’re staring at the floor, ‘let someone else do it,'” he said. “After all, especially now, ‘you’re the speaker, you’re an important guy, this is a really sensitive topic.””
“You know, those are excuses,” he said. “Those are weaknesses, and I feel ashamed.
“So let’s go full circle,” Speaker Cox continued, “It’s good I’m here in this seat today, seat number 79. I vowed in 1990 to do everything I could to save the unborn and protect life. Frankly, my record has been spotty at best. This speech only begins the true fulfillment of that promise to myself. Promise – reflect on that word. Words have meaning.”
“It reflects not only my commitment to myself, it also reflects the quality of potential – what could be,” he added.
“There are 61,012,997 unkept promises. There are 61,012,997 Moniques who never got to marry their high school sweetheart, never went to college, never went to law school, never go to work at Thomas Jefferson’s capital,” he said.”
“So what is my promise?” Cox posited.
“I will never stop fighting for the promise of life as long as I hold a gavel, as long as I can speak into this microphone, as long as I have the privilege of this floor. I promise to fight for the promise of life.”
Redistricting Bill Set To Create Independent Commission To Draw Virginia’s Legislative Maps
The 12-member commission would be staffed the speaker of the House of Delegates, the State Senate Rules Committee, and the governor, who would appoint four members each, two from both political parties.
House Republicans Set To Kill Off Every Gun Control Bill From Democrats
When Republicans announced that gun control legislation from Democrats was “dead on arrival” in the 2019 General Assembly session, they were serious, very serious.
Guns In Church? Virginia State Senate Passes Bill To Allow Armed Worshipers
Bucking Governor Ralph Northam’s progressive gun control package, Virginia’s Republican-controlled State Senate passes a measure to repeal the ban on carrying firearms in church and other places of worship.
Lee County School Board Sues The Commonwealth After Blocking Move To Arm Teachers
A lawsuit against the Commonwealth is now moving forward as the Lee County School division is challenging Attorney General Mark Herring’s legal opinion on arming teachers to protect students.