A String of Fish   An assortment of political observations as varied as catfish and trout, bass and shad...    Summer time is for sipping tea, napping in the languid heat and lazily throwing a hook and line into the water. So, just pretend that the odd lot of recent political happenings is a string of fish waiting to hauled home.   The good citizens of Hampton, York and Poquoson need to contact their city council/board of supervisors to insist on getting the city/county lawyers together, or alone if other communities lack courage, to sue the Commonwealth for the unconstitutionality of HB 3203, the 07 Transportation Tax Panic.   In Tidewater the first meeting of the unelected, unaccountable Regional Government, empowered to make decisions over taxation and transportation, is scheduled for July 18. In keeping with the dictatorial dimensions of un-separated powers combined unconscionably in one government, there will be no public comments allowed at the meeting.   "No taxation without representation" and "involuntary servitude" are two prominent aspects of the bad law to be challenged in courts. Loudoun County is suing. But, a court might find only for NoVa’s Regional government, so our elected officials in Hampton Roads need to sue too. Soon.   The blow back about traffic abuser fines is such irony. The Republicans, who insisted this bogus transportation law had to be passed to make seats safe for the Republican majority, actually put seats at jeopardy.   One seat that shouldn’t be in jeopardy is the 96th House of Delegates seat (York-James City County and one precinct in Newport News). Brenda Pogge, Conservative populist activist, defeated Sheila Noll by 23 votes in the primary. Noll, a 12-year Republican incumbent on the York Board of Supervisors, appealed to the 1st District to 'do over'. She lost by a vote of the 1st District Committee. If she appeals to State Central it will be heard on July 21st. Brenda Pogge is working hard to keep the seat Republican.   At that State Central, Republican Party of Virginia meeting, Executive Director Charlie Judd should be elected the Chairman of the RPV. It’ll be the first time since who knows when that the chairman wasn’t anointed by the biggest dog among Virginia Republican officials. That should change after the 2009 election when the new Republican Governor has State Central put his guy in the chairman’s seat.   That election will follow, of course the 2008 elections for Congress and the President of the United States of America. Former governor Jim Gilmore dropped out of that race. Hope his eye surgery goes wonderfully, so he can make himself available to run for U.S. Senate. I believe the Fred Thompson wave will carry him well, as surely as Gilmore will do wonderfully on his own.   Thompson will defeat Hillary like Nixon beat McGovern - for some similar reasons.   Jim Hoeft (Bearing Drift blog) did a great job organizing and putting on the Bloggers United conference at Christopher Newport University. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting people whom I know by their words alone. I got to put faces to the names I know from the Virginia blogosphere. Many folks seem to act and appear as they write. Zesty is zestful. Serious is serious. Etc.   Watching the Mainstream Media press and politicians from both political parties make appearances was good political theater. Neither Media nor Officials can control the blogs. Both are trying to find an accommodation they can master.   Soon enough it’ll be August and time for a slight pause before all 140 seats for the Virginia General Assembly are up for election. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling told the bloggers, in frank honesty, that seven seats in the Senate were in play. Who knows who’ll win the majority?   I’m not sure that losing the majority and letting the Democrats do the gerrymandering as they did from 1870s to 2000 is all that terrible. It will stress the Republican politicians who put the ’02 Transportation Tax Scam and the ’07 Transportation Tax Panic together and jammed it down the throats of the voters. Republican seats lost might be regained by Republicans running on principles instead of walking through safe elections to just preserve power.   Finally, stay tuned for the anti-illegal immigrant grassroots movement. It started in Prince William's County. Soon to be in your city or county. Just like the kNOw Campaign in ’02, it’s about speaking truth to power.   -- July 16, 2007