Today State Senator Ken Cuccinelli launches his campaign for the 2009 Republican AG nomination and in a shocking move, violates state law with his campaign website. Misdemeanor Cuccinelli took the seal of the commonwealth, a seal reserved exclusively for the official business of Virginia and loaded it onto the header of his campaign website.

The Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth's website clearly states:

Section 1-505 of
the Code of Virginia provides that the seals of the Commonwealth are
deemed the property of the Commonwealth; and no persons shall exhibit,
display, or in any manner utilize the seals or any facsimile or representation
of the seals of the Commonwealth for nongovernmental purposes unless
such use is specifically authorized.

As an elected official Cuccinelli should know by now that you are not allowed to stamp unofficial and especially campaign materials with the Seal of the Commonwealth. It's a sign of inexperience or poor judgement to slap an image onto a website without the authority of its owner. Cuccinelli is a patent attorney he deals with copyright, trademark and technical law all day long, doesn't he know this?

Some might say "well the state seal is on the state flag, can't he use it on his website? It's in the public domain for crying out loud!" Yes, the state flag has the Seal of the Commonwealth and if he wanted to show his Virginia credentials he should have displayed a representation of the Virginia flag. This rendering displays the seal on a red background obviously not a legal implementation of the seal from a flag based image.

As a citizen of Virginia I call on Sen. Cuccinelli to remove the official seal of Virginia as soon as possible. If he continues this campaign illegally utilizing the commonwealth's property I should hope the Commonwealth's Attorney of Fairfax County launches an investigation.

UPDATE 8:45: I just spotted a document on the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website noting: 9. The Seals shall not be used in any matter that might resonably be considered as being for a political purpose.

Richmonders once feared our city's streets were lost to the criminals when the sun set, today's Times-Dispatch reports that our hopes have prevailed over fear.

Central Virginia enjoyed a 2.5 percent drop in major reported crime last year, even as the region's population grew by at least that much.

...

Richmond, Reitzel added, "is obviously a much safer place than in years past," because in addition to a sizable drop in homicides, "you're seeing similar trends across all the violent-crime categories and property crimes. And this has been going over a number of years now."

...

Richmond was the only jurisdiction among the 24 localities to report decreases in all eight major categories of crime: homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, vehicle theft and arson.

...

The department's success stems from a variety of things, Buckovich
said, including sector policing, community engagement and a
problem-solving approach to fighting crime that uses focus-mission
teams to more intensely target specific areas and individuals.

Al Pacino summed it all up in the movie City Hall:

There was a palace that was a city. It was a PALACE! It was a PALACE
and it CAN BE A PALACE AGAIN! A PALACE, in which there is no king or
queen, or dukes or earls or princes, but subjects all: subjects
beholden to each other, to make a better place to live. Is that too
much to ask?

Richmond too can be a palace again and it will be as long as citizens and their government can unite in justice and common good.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a series of articles about our prospects for mayoral candidates this November. This will be Richmond’s second election whereby a popularly elected mayor will be chosen and a cantankerous former governor will be an option for voters.

My feelings are that we gave ornery and cantankerous a chance in 2004 to “clean up the cesspool” of Richmond city government. Unfortunately our mayor has seen fit to spend his time waging war against city council and the school board, attacking the city school administration , and among other hobbies harassing and frustrating the Richmond Braves into leaving the city . A good mayor he has not been and his lofty expectations are not met.

So far Doug Wilder, Paul Goldman and Jackie Jackson have declared their candidacies. The latter candidate, Jackie Jackson is now my favorite but that could very well change as more candidates throw their hat in the ring. Jackson proved herself as a capable, professional and dedicated public servant when she served on city council. Her reputation and experience in public service is outstanding and she would bring positive change to a city hall that has fallen victim to the increasingly paranoid and delusional culture of the current mayor.

The TD spoke with other potential candidates for mayor, my favorite being Secretary of Administration Viola Baskerville. She declines the opportunity in favor of focusing her attention on her job in state government. My other favored candidate City Council President Bill Pantele remains open to the idea. Bill would be an excellent mayor, a strong candidate and an advocate for Richmonders.

We’ll see what develops over the next few weeks as it seems to be candidacy declaration season in the capital city!

Technorati Profile

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Pres. Bush said that McCain "has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative. And I'll be glad to help him if he is the nominee" (Los Angeles Times ).

Yes Mr.President, please help John McCain convince the country he is a George W. Bush conservative.

Check out this bizarre email I received this weekend from some guy claiming to be THE Richmond Democrat:

I take this automated e-mail response to my registration at the fake "The Richmond Democrat" website (see below) as confirmation that you have infringed upon my copyrighted blog name "The Richmond Democrat" and you are passing yourself off as me online, falsely representing me as a supporter of Hillary Clinton.

I strongly urge you to reconsider your course of action before I am forced to take legal action under both civil and criminal laws…

I will give you a reasonable amount of time (24 hours) to take your fake "The Richmond Democrat" site down, but if it is not taken down, I will file complaints with the Virginia State Police and the FBI, as well as instituting civil legal action against you to stop you from violating my copyright, your theft of the "RD" trademark, and the representation of me in a false light as a supporter of Hillary Clinton (hint, this is the part that violates a federal criminal statute).

Apparently this guy doesn’t live in Richmond , he doesn’t live in Virginia and he takes exceptional issue that I have the audacity as a Democrat to back Hillary Clinton for President. As someone that does live in Richmond, does support ALL Democrats and someone that does have the audacity to stand up to the threats of overzealous supporters of another political candidate, I will continue my blog.

Further I have to wonder if this guy is subscribing to the Church of Scientology playbook for quashing freedom of speech, it wouldn’t surprise me with the cult like behavior over at his blog .

Today Hillary launched the perfect ad for Virginia in several of our media markets:

As everyone knows I support all of our strong Democratic candidates and I think we have some tough choices to make on Primary Day. My choice is made easier and my support for Hillary Clinton made more solid every time I hear the angry candidate Barack Obama attacking other candidates and shirking the responsibility of such attacks.

I am saddened when I think about the great promise of the politics of hope and see politics as usual. Obama complains all the time that he is a swiftboat victim, all the while sending his minions out to take potshots at Senator Clinton and her husband. For instance:

• THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN FALSELY CLAIMED THAT BILL CLINTON GAVE A PAID SPEECH ABROAD ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11. Actually, he was attending a 9/11 memorial service in New Jersey. [TPM Election Central]
• THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN FALSELY CLAIMED HILLARY HAD A 20 YEAR PLAN TO BECOME PRESIDENT. This is a widely discredited claim from an anti-Hillary book. [TPM Election Central]
  
• SEN. OBAMA FALSELY CLAIMED HILLARY SAID NAFTA WAS A 'BOON' TO THE ECONOMY LAST YEAR. At the last debate, Sen. Obama said "And it is absolutely true that NAFTA was a mistake. I know that Hillary on occasion has said -- just last year said this was a boon to the economy." Sen. Obama and his campaign have made the claim repeatedly, even though it is well established that she never said it. [Fact Hub]

I’ve come to terms that the promise of the politics of hope can not be fulfilled as was so poetically written by Obama, but rather the politics of anger, paranoia, and personal vitriolic attacks prevail.

It’s just politics as usual in a different book cover, some audacity huh?

I can't wait for Hillary's ads to start running in VA, especially ads like this one running in South Carolina:

I am tired of cigarette smoke at Virginia’s dining establishments. I am tired
of watery eyes, irritated lungs, and smelling like a smoldering ash tray after
dinner. Fortunately for me, my governor is leading the way with legislation to
ban smoking in restaurants. Unfortunately for me, the powerful restaurant and