Howling Latina

Here are a few passages (as best as Howling Latina could construe) and context from Sen. John Warner's afternoon's press conference on the Rotunda steps at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville transcribed from the C-SPAN video.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson, builder and founder of UVA in summing up his prepared text:

"There is a fullness of time when men should go and not occupy too long the ground for which others have the right to advance.

"So I say with great humility and thankfulness in my heart, I yield that ground so that others can advance.”

Taking a few questions from the press after the speech.

On when he made his retirement decision:

Really, in the last day or two…I wanted to make one final trip to Iraq. That situation in Iran and Afghanistan occupies the major portion of my thinking every day of my life…

I have played, I am playing and I will continue to play a role in trying to bring about a cessation of that conflict such that it reflects nothing but dignity upon those men and women in the armed forces and indeed many civilians who serve in those theatres and are still serving.

As you may now, I was privileged to write the law which required the president to comment on a series of benchmarks, which he did on July 15. The law further requires the president to speak to the nation and the Congress on the 15th of September. And prior thereto the law requires Gen. Petraus and the United States ambassador to come before the Congress and give us their views.

There was another section that I put into the law, which I think is going to be a strong success. That is, I felt that we needed a totally independent analysis of the professional ability, today, tomorrow and in the future of the Iraqi security forces. Be they army or police.

On the question of retirement and speaking out against the Iraq war:

Now, by taking this action [retirement], no one can say, politics is going to dictate in one way or another how I’m going to decide to speak out what’s the best interest for this nation. I’m going to do that. I respectfully want to support the office of the president. He has clear, very clear constitutional responsibilities but the Congress also has its say in the framework. But my hope that maybe, maybe, we can reach in what might be a forthcoming debate, some bipartisanship to show that we’re moving together to try and resolve this conflict in a way that protects our vital interest as a nation in this whole region—not just Iraq. But you also have to have responsibility for our men and women in the army...

On having a favorite person in mind to replace him in the Senate:

Quick answer...no...My contribution is to step back and let the state work it..

On Virginia's junior senator, Jim Webb:

I’ve gotten to know a lot of senators and political figures…Jim Webb, for example, I wasn’t entirely sure, even though I’d known him through the years, just how he would work. But he’s been a strong working partner in the Senate. And particularly helpful to me in trying to provide the president with the names of individuals who can serve in the federal judiciary. That’s one of our main responsibilities…

On boosting Tom Davis candidacy (since he'll likely be the only congressman running for the seat in the GOP field):

I have no one in mind. I really feel that an experienced person must step up. I think within the ranks of the Republican members of Congress who I will now call momentarily and thank all of them for their work. We worked together very well as a team; all these 30 men and women that I have worked through the years. That’s the type of experience I hope will come forward to win this election.

On his greatest accomplishment in the Senate:

I have tried to pay back the United States military for all the things that it did for me in some three tours that I’ve had in many years past and many years in the reserves… That, together with trying to fix the little things in little villages and towns all across the state; these are marvelous people…

On the press:

You’ve been eminently fair to me. I don’t know what kind sort of hamburger you’ll chop up today and put out, but you have been fair to me. Tough but fair. I only mention that not to flatter you but I see other senators, literally, eviscerated day in and day out by elements of the press in their states. And be it a Republican or Democrat in our great state, that’s not happening. The press in our state are very hard working and responsible; they’ll dig down and get the truth. They’ll tell it fair and square.

On what lies ahead for the country:

These are critical times in our country…Precarious situation in so many parts of the word. Whether it’s Iran or Syria or Musharraf...

On how streakers ruined the 1972 UVA graduation ceremony where he was the commencement speaker and the president took him to his house and gave him a compulation of Shakespeare's work as a gift, quoting a passage that stood out:

"This above all, to thine own self be true.” Well, I have tried to do that; and more importantly, I have tried to be -- not only true to myself but true to all the people of this great commonwealth that I have served for now 29 years and to the people across America.

Well run along and be a good little boy, Joe, or we'll have to take away your chair and committee asignments.

GREAT news!

Hours before Kenneth Foster, Jr., was scheduled to be executed for a murder he did not commit, Texas Gov. Rick Perry spared his life, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Praise the Lord and HALLELUJAH!

In a 6-1 vote, the Board of Pardons and Paroles this morning recommended that Perry commute the death sentence.

And Perry not only agreed with the Board and commuted Foster's sentence but in so many words counseled state legislators to change the law. DRIVING THE GETAWAY CAR does not merit the needle.

The L.A. Times explains:

The governor did not address the Texas law that allows an accomplice to be given the death penalty, but said, "I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the Legislature should examine."

Well folks, were it not for Gov. Tim Kaine's veto during the last session in Richmond, Virginia would now have on the books a similiar law. The needle would not be for the worst of the worst but anyone tangentially involved.

Let's hope and pray the General Assembly has the good sense to not introduce a bill that would do away with the "triggerman rule" next year.

And sharing their moral values. (H/T Bartcop)

--require sheriffs to confirm an arrested person's legal presence in the United States by checking nationwide databases maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement;

--require every jail to have at least one person on duty at all times who has been certified by ICE to detain an illegal immigrant until deportation proceedings can begin;

--establish a legal presumption that bail will be denied when an illegal immigrant is charged with an offense punishable by jail or prison time;

--make a federal conviction for hiring illegal immigrants grounds for suspension of a state business license; and

--prohibit illegal immigrants from attending Virginia public colleges unless they have a valid student visa.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. ~George Bernard Shaw

A couple of days ago, Howling Latina came out in support of the Latino boycott as a way to fight back against the menacing mean-spirited wave that has taken over Prince William County.

And as way to smear a candidate HL tried to help elect in a special election last year and may do so again this November, some "nattering nabob of negativism" darkly pointed out that gasp, she had worked the polls for Jeanette Rishell.

By the way, the mudslinging king was a stauch Jackson "Batwing" Miller supporter and loves to ratchet the poison that's bringing negative headlines to PWC and costing real estate prices to plummet beyond neighboring areas.

Well, rather than point out exactly why this blogger's worldview is oh, so contrived and racist, she'll let a passage from a Washington Post editorial comparing Washington area jurisdictions speak for her on the issue.

Prince William County...has lately joined the nationwide rush to hound illegal immigrants by denying them public services and siccing the police on them in hopes of driving them away. Prince William's neighbor to the north, Loudoun County, has done the same. But Manassas Park, its diminutive size notwithstanding, is refusing to be bullied into joining in the immigrant-bashing.

Mr. Fork Tongue, wonder ye then at the fiery pushback by Latinos???

Nightmare in Little Havana, the undead Fidel lives!

Contrary to the latest round of rumors, very-much alive Fidel rose from his death-bed and penned an article in Cuba's Communist-run newspaper, Granma International to weigh in on American politics.

Fidel took a shot at the Cuban-American voting bloc in Florida and their ever-increasing influence in presidential prospects. With special focus on Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, Fidel writes:

Today, talk is about the seemingly invincible ticket that might be created with Hillary for President and Obama for Vice President. Both of them feel the sacred duty of demanding “a democratic government in Cuba”. They are not making politics: they are playing a game of cards on a Sunday
afternoon.

And by bringing up the disputed 2000 presidential election and how Batista's loyal henchmen (loyalists to the former U.S.-backed repressive Cuban dictator) had a hand in it, Fidel also succeeded in scoring a rhetorical point on "virtue at a distance."

In the United States, you can have a minimum of votes and still become President. That is what happened to Bush. Having a majority of electoral votes and losing the Presidency is what happened to Gore. For that reason, the State of Florida is the prize everyone aspires to, because of the presidential votes it provides. In the case of Bush, an electoral fraud was also needed; for this, the first Cuban emigrants, who were the Batista supporters and the bourgeois, were best masters.

Ouch!

H/T The Washington Post.

Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who made history as the nation's first elected black governor, is preparing to campaign aggressively for Barack Obama, and predicted in an interview that the charismatic young candidate could shatter the Republican Party's virtual lock on the South.

Megachurch co-pastors are getting a divorce.

Channel surfing, Howling Latina often came across Rev. Paula White, the attractive blonde with a bold voice for cash and God, but rarely listened more than a minute or two, preferring the more down-to-earth Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries for her morning Holy Ghost pep rally.

Well, it seems the financial strains and bad publicity about their ministry of "more manipulation than inspiration" were too much. Paula and her husband, Rev/Bishop/ Randy White, are getting a divorce.

Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove," said Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.).

"Long overdue. The rampant politicization of federal law enforcement that occurred under his tenure seriously eroded public confidence in our justice system. The president must now restore credibility to the office of the Attorney General," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Even though the entry price was $25, the Democratic presidential candidate snagged the largest crowd so far in 2008 when he visited Miami.

Indeed, according to Beth Reinhard of the Miami Herald, Barack Obama "turned Saturday afternoon at Miami-Dade County Auditorium into Sunday morning at church...straying from the teleprompters [with] intimacy and spontaneity rarely seen on the campaign trail."

''You have my word -- and the government and people of Cuba should hear my call -- that our cause is simple,'' he said. "It's what drew my father across an ocean, and many of you across the waters to our south. That principle is libertad. Until there is justice in Cuba, there is no justice anywhere.''

Libertad! Freedom! Freedom to have an open dialogue with ANYONE!

The blogosphere has been abuzz lately because in an interview, Obama named batwing Sen. Tom Coburn, a man the Illinois senator rightly labeled the most conservative man in Washington, as a person he could work with.

Now, after excoriating Bush for refusing to sit down with Iran, bloggers have been trashing Obama all over the place for having the temerity to voice the unthinkable. THE HORROR! the horror...

Guess Obama and Coburn will soon be yappin' up ways to ban abortions, outlaw gays and mandate V-chips in every household.

Honestly, sometimes the national progressive blogosphere is so guilty of group-think me-tooism. But bless lefties little hearts, brave souls spoke truth to power in their comments.

That's right, equal to talking with adversaries from North Korea President Kim Jong-il to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Obama is absolutely right; freedom is the release from conventional wisdom; permission to talk to even the battiest of the batwings when interests coalesce -- and even when they don't.

Just the other day on Jon Stewart, Obama declined to attack Hillary after Stewart goaded him by dissing her ladyship's experience in the White House. But Obama didn't bite; he didn't bark; hell, he didn't even growl.

This guy is an independent spirit and authentic to a fault. Hillary can talk up all her experience and try to scare Dems to vote for her because you know, she's the only one who can save us from the mean terrible terrorists; but..Obama doesn't need to use creepy histrionics, he can get votes through honest, common sense solutions. Like removing the harebrained travel ban to Cuba.

Americans "want someone new,'' Obama told the cheering crowd. "They want to turn the page. They want to write a new chapter of American history."

Amen, Brother Obama. Godspeed, and what the hell has taken you so long?!?

Update: Attendees paid as much as $100 for seats. H/T Pensito Review.

"Obama is clearly more effective and has the upper hand," Brzezinski...said. "He has a sense of what is historically relevant, and what is needed from the United States in relationship to the world."

Brzezinski, 79, dismissed the notion that Clinton, 59, a New York senator and the wife of former President Bill Clinton, is more seasoned than Obama, 46. "Being a former first lady doesn't prepare you to be president," Brzezinski said.

Clinton's foreign-policy approach is "very conventional," Brzezinski said. "I don't think the country needs to go back to what we had eight years ago."

"There is a need for a fundamental rethinking of how we conduct world affairs," he added. "And Obama seems to me to have both the guts and the intelligence to address that issue and to change the nature of America's relationship with the world."

It seems our junior senator is very popular throughout the country.

Union Leader reports that Sen. Jim Webb, D-VA, will be headlining the Democratic Jefferson Jackson Dinner in New Hampshire in October.

The senator whose election is credited with swinging the balance of power to Democrats in the U.S. Senate last year will be the featured speaker at the state Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner in October.

[...]

Sen. Webb's election to the United States Senate was a critical victory for Democrats as we fight to end the war as quickly as possible and tend to the national priorities, like health care and education, which were ignored under the Republican-controlled Congress," Buckley said.

Of course, New Hamsphire is a battleground state in the Senate race with embattled Republican John Sununu on his last jammin' phone session -- er. last days before voters boot him out of office.

Uh, oh, get the cavalry ready. Looks like Fightin' Jim Webb is going to the Granite State to help fight the good fight; and yea, unlike Sununu, without cheating and lying.

Sen. John Warner, R-VA will be the featured guest on "Meet the Press" this Sunday.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Webb, D-VA will be yapping-up some sense on ABC's “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Both Webb and Warner believe our military needs to start to redeploy the troops out of Iraq.

Other upcoming guests on "Meet the Press" are Richard Engel, NBC News foreign correspondent and Beirut Bureau Chief, Michael Gordon, New York Times military correspondent and co-author of "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion & Occupation of Iraq" and Thomas Ricks, Washington Post military correspondent and author of "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq."

Seven-time winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, will also be joining Tim Russert. Armstrong is co-hosting two presidential cancer forums next Monday and Tuesday in Iowa.

Hmmm, wonder what Mean Jean Schmidt from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District has to say about the latest "coward" (by way of senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee) deciding it's time to cut and run?!?

[T]he Bush administration has made grand gestures to that end while strategically blundering when it comes to actually advancing the cause of freedom and democracy in Cuba. This is particularly true of the administration's decision to restrict the ability of Cuban Americans to visit and send money to their relatives in Cuba. This is both a humanitarian and a strategic issue. That decision has not only had a profoundly negative impact on the welfare of the Cuban people. It has also made them more dependent on the Castro regime and isolated them from the transformative message carried there by Cuban Americans.

In the ''Cuban spring'' of the late 1990s and early years of this decade, dissidents and human-rights activists had more political space than at any time since the beginning of Castro's rule, and Cuban society experienced a small opening in advancing the cause of freedom for the Cuban people.

The other major Democratic candidate, John Edwards, said in a statement Tuesday that promoting travel by family members to Cuba ''can help spread the promise of freedom and democracy within Cuba and strengthen families across the waters.'' He favors the cap on remittances to use as leverage against the
regime.

In March, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would prohibit the president from regulating the right of any American citizen or resident to travel to Cuba.

In his infinite folly, President George Bush has restricted the right to travel to Cuba only to those who have immediate family members in the island. Thus, if you have an aging aunt or first cousin you wish to see one last time, you're out of luck. "Con el amor, no todo se puede," love doesn't really conquer all.

Recently, Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd of Connecticut wrote an entry on Huffington Post highlighting his support of the bill.

"I want to see the peaceful transition to democracy occur on the Island of Cuba in my life time," he writes.

It is simply un-American to bar American citizens from traveling to foreign countries. In fact, Americans are currently free to travel to both Iran and North Korea, two countries which pose far more serious threats to American national security than the government of Cuba.

Cosponsoring the bill were Senators Byron Dorgan D-N.D., Max Baucus D-Mont., Larry Craig R-Idaho, Patrick Leahy D-Vt., Tom Harkin D-Iowa, Chuck Hagel R-Neb., Russell Feingold D-Wis., Dianne Feinstein D-Calif., and Jeff Bingaman D-N.M.

Howling Latina recently received a google alert that our junior senator from Virginia, Jim Webb, backs the bill. Senators Dick Durbin, D-IL., Barbara Boxer, D-CA., Maria Cantwell, D-WA., Kent Conrad, D-ND., Daniel Inouye, D-HI., Tim Johnson, D-SD., Mary Landrieu, D-LA., Patty Murray, D-WA., and Bernie Sanders, I-VT., also support the measure.

By the bye, recent polls indicate that a whopping majority of Americans favor normalizing relations with Cuba; and that includes a majority of Cuban-Americans in the Miami-Dade County area.

Here's what S.721 says:

(a) Freedom of Travel for United States Citizens and Legal Residents- On and after the date of the enactment of this Act, and subject to section 3--

(1) the President may not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel that are set forth in subsection (b); and

(2) any regulation in effect on such date of enactment that regulates or prohibits travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents or transactions incident to such travel shall cease to have any force or effect.

(b) Transactions Incident to Travel- The transactions referred to in subsection (a) are--

(1) any transactions ordinarily incident to travel to or from Cuba, including the importation into Cuba or the United States of accompanied baggage for personal use only;

(2) any transactions ordinarily incident to travel or maintenance within Cuba, including the payment of living expenses and the acquisition of goods or services for personal use;

(3) any transactions ordinarily incident to the arrangement, promotion, or facilitation of travel to, from, or within Cuba;

(4) any transactions incident to nonscheduled air, sea, or land voyages, except that this paragraph does not authorize the carriage of articles into Cuba or the United States except accompanied baggage; and

(5) normal banking transactions incident to the activities described in the preceding provisions of this subsection, including the issuance, clearing, processing, or payment of checks, drafts, traveler's checks, credit or debit card instruments, or similar instruments.

EXCEPTIONS

(a) Special Circumstances- Section 2 shall not apply in a case in which the United States is at war with Cuba, armed hostilities between the two countries are in progress, or there is imminent danger to the public health or the physical safety of United States travelers.

(b) Importation of Goods for Personal Consumption- Section 2 does not
authorize the importation into the United States of any goods for personal consumption acquired in Cuba.

Shaun Kenney, a spokesman for the Virginia GOP, questioned whether the politicians' close ties to labor might eventually result in efforts to repeal Virginia's right-to-work laws.

"That's high on the agenda for Big Labor," Kenney said. "Virginia's status as a right-to-work state has resulted in us being one of the most business-friendly states in the nation."

Yep Mary Winkler is getting out.

"I'm grateful to have been a witness to history. It has been the joy and the honor of a lifetime," said Rove, his voice quivering at times. "But now is the time. ... At month's end," Rove said, "I will join those whom you meet in your travels, the ordinary Americans who tell you they are praying for you....and for the Almighty's continued blessing for our country."

Every time Howling Latina argues with a death penalty proponent against strapping a convicted felon to a gurney and sending him or her to perdition, the phrase "heinous crime" or "worst of the worst" invariable crops up.

Nice talking point but far from reality.

Just last spring, the General Assembly in Virginia passed a bill to extend executions to individuals who didn't kill anyone; and yes, that would include any person in a car with a would-be killer -- even without foreknowledge of an impending murder.

No matter.

Right now, there is a man on death row in Texas who fits this profile. Kenneth Foster, Jr., is going to be executed in 18 days, even though he's not a murderer.

Democracy Now reports:

Foster is scheduled to be executed under a controversial Texan law known as the law of parties. The law imposes the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred. In Foster's case he was driving a car with three passengers, one of whom left the car, got into an altercation and shot a Michael LaHood dead. At the time of the shooting, Kenneth Foster was 80 feet away in his car. Since Foster's original trial, the other passengers have testified that Foster had no idea a shooting was going to take place.

On Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied death row prisoner Kenneth Foster's final appeal. In a six-to-three decision the appeals court denied Foster's final writ of habeas corpus. Foster's last recourse is the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and Texas Governor Rick Perry. According to Foster's criminal attorney, Keith Hampton, five of the seven board members must recommend clemency in order for Governor Perry to consider granting it. Kenneth Foster's scheduled execution date is August 30th.

Indeed, Mr. Foster illustrates why Gov. Tim Kaine was so right in vetoing the bill that would have dispensed with the triggerman rule; and why the General Assembly was so wrong in trying to expand the number of crimes that give them license to kill. Thank the good Lord, the Senate upheld Kaine's veto.

For the record, Texas has already executed five inmates since June; and five are set to go in August.

What a shameful moral outrage!

Well, here's putting a face next to context; and of course, another person of color on death row leaving loved ones behind. Please click here and e-mail the governor.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Ron Paul's wife, Carol Paul, 71, was rushed to a hospital after complaining of shortness of breath.

The Republican presidential candidate and Congressman from Texas is an OB/GYN medical doctor. In fact, Paul was still delivering babies during the early part of his congressional career.

As the conservative netroots favorite, if Paul can transform buzz and energy at the Iowa straw poll into votes, he will surprise!

Update: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romny wins the Iowa caucus with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee coming in second and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas right behind in third place.

A few months ago, Howling Latina was accused of lynching this guy, Uncle Ford.

Well, she hates to tell you she told you so, but....

[I]mpeachment like everything else is a matter of priorities and responsibility. In order to move on impeachment now, we would be put in a position at a very, very delicate time in our nation’s history, of having necessarily to take our eye off the ball on a host of other things that will have longer-lasting impact on the security of this country. As a practical matter, it sucks all the oxygen out of the air. We would effectively be paralyzed for the next six months or longer. … The alternative, and it’s taken me time to think through, I think we should be acquiring and accumulating all the data that is appropriate for possibly bringing criminal charges against members of this administration at a later date.

Everyone is concerned about civilian casualties, a ”senior British commander said. “Of course it is counterproductive if civilians get injured, but we’ve got to pick up the pack of cards that we have got. Other people have been operating in our area before us.”

The Americans are killing and destroying a village just in pursuit of one person,” said Mahmadullah, 24, referring to Osama bin Laden. “So now we have understood that the Americans are a curse on us, and they are here just to destroy Afghanistan. They can tell the difference between men and women, children and animals, but they are just killing everyone.”

Prince William County in Virginia and Harris County in Texas have something in common: each jurisdiction leads in executions in their respective states, with Texas leading the nation and Virginia following right behind.

The Houston Chronicle, one of the best sources in educating the public on the issue of capital punishment is once again EDUCATING.

Anyone remember the Houston crime lab scandal where stacks of cases were botched by analysts and at least one man was later exonerated and pardoned after the Chronicle began reporting of the unholy mess in breaking news throughout 2002 and 2003?

How about the more recent investigative journalism story of Ruben Cantu, a poor 17-year kid with no prior record who was wrongfully executed in Texas?

Well, in the same tradition, the Chronicle recently penned an article about the changing winds of justice in the United State; it seems more and more prosecutors are rejecting capital punishment.

In noting the decline, the Chronicle writes:

In the last 2 1/2 years, the deadliest county in America has apparently lost some of its taste for what former District Attorney Johnny Holmes used to call the "silver needle society."

In that time it has condemned only six defendants to death, two fewer than Bexar County, which historically has ranked a distant third in capital contributions.

Death row convictions have also "dropped by more than 50 percent nationally over the last six years."

Praise the LORD; and a thousand Hallelujahs!

"Life without parole has changed the public's perception," Schneider said. "If you have the idea that you are safe from somebody who will never get out of prison, some juries are satisfied with that. And for prosecutors, it's easy for them to try a non-death capital, get life without parole, and do it in a week.

Time is saved and public resources are saved."

But Virginia apparently didn't receive the memo. Legislators keep trying to add more and more felonies to the list of death-eligible crimes and Prince William County prosecutors continue to party like it's 1999.

Last session, the General Assembly overrode Gov. Tim Kaine's veto and added two more felonies to the death list; and just a few weeks ago, a Prince William County jury convicted and sentenced a man to die.

Joshua Wayne Andrews, 25, became the latest member to join death row; and while doing so, he gave lie to rosy predictions by happy death penalty warriors that executions prevent future crimes. Mr. Andrews' father was sentenced to die for killing two people in Texas during a jewelry heist.

Indeed, no thanks to public officials, capital murder convictions in Virginia mirror national trends and have also dropped.

But...alas...no such luck for good ol' Prince William County.

And yet...all is not lost.

It looks like the county's Judge Roy Bean reputation might have started to worry some people. In reporting the recent murder trial, The Potomac News quotes the commonwealth attorney's closing argument that is filled with laughable phony angst -- lest the jury believe he actually relishes his job.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney James Willette asked the jury to sentence Andrews to death.

"We take no pleasure in that. It's a difficult thing for us to ask, a difficult thing for you to do," Willette said.

But, he said, Andrews continues to be a threat if he continues to live.

Now have you ever heard such a load of crap?!?

Howling Latina supposes this bushel of absurdity is the reason prosecutors strike jurors with advanced degrees or professional occupations; for yes, this is the same gamey gang that absolutely demanded, yes, demanded a few years ago that a jury convict and sentence a teen to die because he was a coward.

First you're a coward and then you're a killing machine, as you read on.

Here's what the prosecution told a Manassas jury back in 2002, courtesy of Lexis-Nexis.

Prosecutors argued that Wolfe hired Barber for about $ 13,000 and some drugs because he knew Barber would be willing to carry out such a plan. They relied in part on cell phone records -- which showed Barber was in constant contact with Wolfe at the time of the killing -- and told jurors that Wolfe would do anything for money, including killing his supplier and so-called friend.

"If this man hadn't set the ball rolling, if he didn't know the propensity of Barber, if he didn't use him as an instrument of death, we wouldn't be here today," Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert told the jury yesterday, calling Wolfe a "coward" who "didn't have the guts to do it himself."

And here's what the assistant commonwealth attorney told a jury at the Andrews trial, as reported in The Washington Post a few days ago.

[P]rosecutors portrayed Andrews as a "killing machine," a man so violent and volatile that he remains a constant threat. Even in prison, they said, he is a danger to staff and other inmates.

So folks, forget Willette's crocodile tears. The iron-clad fact of the matter is that Prince William County prosecutors love to send people to the death chamber.

How else to explain why four out of the last 12 most recent capital murder prosecutions and convictions in Virginia fell under the jurisdicition of Paul Ebert Dracula...?

Oh, and let's not overlook that after Circuit Judge Rossie Alston gives his blessing, Mr. Andrews will be the fifth one -- and all within a five-year span.

"The professional counselor outlined three key issues that he said are pertinent to his district: transportation, smart growth and energy policy.

[...]

Virginia currently has no energy policy, according to Day, and he said it was important to look seriously at renewable energy sources, develop a conservation plan and focus on green building.

Yes, the last few years have revealed the lie that was Del. Flip-Flopper's battle cry, "Promises made -- promised kept."

Now more than ever, Lingamfelter has refused to represent the interests of his constituents. With blocking transportation funding and every Kaine road initiative, and then SPONSORING, and yes, you heard right, SPONSORING the disastrous unconstitutional driver abusive fees in the General Assembly, Lingamfelter has shown voters that he cannot be trusted with their future and must be booted out of office.

Meanwhile, Retired Navy Cmdr. Del Toro, a Cuban native has been knocking on doors and hauling in the cash as fast as people can write checks and click on the mouse to donate.

For his campaign run, Del Toro is making education a premier issue. He told the good folks that "it was important to allocate money to local boards of supervisors so that they c[ould] provide for local schools."

The Times-Democrat observed that "[a]ttracting high-paying jobs [would be] another key initiative for Del Toro whose district includes Opal, Remington, Bealeton and Morrisville. "

Godspeed, Señor Day and Del Torro; sail onward to victory in November - PLEASE!

Update: The Times-Democrat has already posted Howling Latina's scoop online.

"He's happy," defense attorney Jason Ewart said after speaking by phone with Davis. He tries to stay distant from the day to day because it's a roller coaster. But he has a positive outlook."

Regarding the arguments to be presented to the state Supreme Court, Ewart, Davis's attorney, said: "We are making the legal argument that innocence matters, that recantations matter when they affect the verdict."

"I'm elated -- we're one step closer to people telling the truth," said Davis's sister,
Martina Correia. "It's time for my brother to walk out of that jail."