Tax Freedom Day Finally Arrives

Tax Freedom Day Finally Arrives

Mark Warner’s Tax Hike Pushes Date Back 11 Days

RICHMOND, VA – After 115 days, Tax Freedom Day has arrived, and Virginia taxpayers can finally stop working for the government and start working for themselves.

Tax Freedom Day is the day in which taxpayers have earned enough income to pay off their estimated federal, state, and local tax bills for a given year, according to the Tax Foundation.

Virginia had successfully moved its Tax Freedom Day to April 18 in 2003. However, Mark Warner’s historic tax increase in 2004 brought that trend to a screeching halt. Virginians’ tax burdens increased steadily for three consecutive years thanks to Warner’s massive tax hike, resulting in Tax Freedom Day not occurring until April 29 in 2007. The Tax Foundation attributes this year’s improvement to the tax stimulus package signed by President Bush earlier this year.

“Tax Freedom Day paints a clear picture of the burden that government places on Virginia’s taxpayers,” said Republican Party of Virginia Chairman John Hager. “Unfortunately, the policies of Mark Warner and his friends Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would only add to the number of days Virginians have to work for the government. Both Obama and Clinton will need to raise taxes to pay for their new government programs, and Virginians are all too familiar with Mark Warner’s support of tax hikes. In contrast, John McCain and the Republicans running for the Senate in Virginia understand that a low tax burden is a key component to a strong, competitive economy.”

More information about Tax Freedom Day can be found at the Tax Foundation’s website, www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/.

Cartoons

'Expelled' looks at academia's efforts to silence opposition to Darwinism

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 4/18/2008 8:00:00 AM

A movie opening in theaters nationwide today examines how educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure, and even fired for questioning Darwinism.

The movie is called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and stars Ben Stein. Filmed in documentary style, Expelled shows the viewer how the debate about the origin of life is one-sided on college campuses and academic institutions worldwide.

Also featured in the documentary are professors on both sides of the issue -- those who have been blacklisted because they question Darwinism, and those who defend evolution and refuse to believe that the universe could have been brought about by an intelligent being.

Stein, who is a former presidential speechwriter, actor, and author, finds it amazing that many of the intellectual elite allow no dissent from Darwin's theory of random mutation and natural selection.

"The intelligentsia said at a certain point that Adolf Hitler was the wave of the future, and so the intelligentsia is often wrong and in fact I'd say they're wrong at least as often as they're right," explains Stein. "We aim to show that they're wrong again. You know what else? We're sick of being pushed around by the intelligentsia."

According to Stein, Darwinism played a role in the Holocaust as the social elite of that time used Darwinian principles to justify purging society of "inferior" races. He also warns that in today's culture, Darwinism is continuing to have a negative impact on social and moral issues.

Stein and the movie's producers are hopeful Expelled will spark more freedom when it comes to teaching about the origins of life.

AFA Story

In Roanoke, showing at the Valley View Grande Theaters

Election results for local units

On Saturday, April 12, Graham Leonard was elected as the new Chairman of the Roanoke County Republican Committee.

Also, Doug Gimbert was re-elected as chair of the Botetourt County Republican Committee.

Congratulations to Graham and Doug on their leadership roles !!

Roanoke County & Botetourt County Mass meetings, Sat April 12

ROANOKE COUNTY REPUBLICAN MASS MEETING
THIS SATURDAY APRIL 12 -- REGISTRATION FROM 9:30-10:30 --
ROANOKE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, behind 419 West.

We will be electing a new chair for the next two year cycle at this meeting and your vote is important. We will also be hearing from a number of guest speakers from around the state, so it will be an interesting meeting. Please make every effort to attend, BUT...

If for any reason you can not attend the mass meeting but wish to be elected as a delegate to the 6th District Convention in Lexington on May 3 or the State Convention in Richmond May 30-31, please let me know as soon as possible BEFORE the mass meeting so that we can add your name to the delegate list. We will also be electing a new county GOP committee and likewise, if you would like to join at this time but cannot attend, please let me know so I can include you on the new membership roll.

Look forward to seeing everyone there!!

Trixie Averill
Roanoke County GOP Chair
890-6519
gopgirl2@aol.com
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Botetourt Co. Mass Meeting
Registration begins at 9:00 AM, meeting starts at 10 AM.
Location: Read Mountain Middle School, Cloverdale
Purpose: Election of Committee members, Delegates to the 6th District & State Convention, and election of County Chairman.

For more information, Contact Doug Gimbert at psalm133@aol.com

Salem elects new party Chair

Congratulations to Greg Habeeb. He was elected chair of the Salem City Republican party at their recent meeting.

Greg is an attorney with Gentry Locke and can be reached at salemrepublicans@yahoo.com

Ken Cuccinelli to run for AG in 2009

(The ticket of McDonnell/Bolling/Cuccinelli will be a GREAT ticket...as all 3 are prolife conservatives who believe in limited govt. and low taxes !!)

March 31, 2008
Dear Fellow Republican:

Well, last week I told you we’d move on to a new topic this week. This week’s topic? We’re going to run for Attorney General of Virginia in 2009. I hope that I can count on all the readers of The Compass to support our effort. For those of you that are ready to commit your support now, please click the link at the bottom and check the box in the upper right hand corner!

Here are some of my remarks from earlier today about why I am running and how I hope to carry forward a conservative, Republican agenda in this race and into the office of AG.

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This is a big day for us, as we’ve decided to proceed with an exploratory effort in pursuit of the Republican nomination for Attorney General in 2009. With the establishment of Bob McDonnell as our presumptive nominee for Governor and Bill Bolling running for re-election to Lt. Governor, we have the opportunity to have the strongest ticket Republicans have advanced in many years.

I believe that I can round out that ticket, bringing my history of conservative leadership and a strong grassroots network based in Northern Virginia. This would be a ticket with a record of fighting for Virginia families and businesses, representing the three most populous parts of the Commonwealth, and with values that I believe will also resonate strongly in the rest of Virginia as well.

I can win in November 2009 because I stand strongly for conservative principles and I have proven that I can explain them in way that demonstrates to an average Virginia family that I can make a positive difference in their daily lives. A difference in cutting red tape and fighting tax hikes that produces more jobs. A difference in protecting our liberties while keeping our families and children safe. A difference in cutting government waste and focusing government spending on core priorities like transportation, education, law enforcement and caring for those who cannot care for themselves, as we did in mental health reform this year. Meeting and talking to people about these and other issues is what I will be doing with my exploratory committee.

Northern Virginia has not been represented on a Republican ticket for the better part of two decades, and I believe that my fellow Republicans across Virginia are now as committed as I have always been to competing in Northern Virginia. All three of my campaigns have been well known for our grassroots success. Despite good fundraising on our part, the Democrats have made sure that we have been outspent in every race we’ve ever run, yet we’ve won with the support of a large group of truly good people who share my commitment to conservative principles. They have put us over the top every time, and I am confident that it is those folks that will get us over the top again – this time for Attorney General.

One of the other blessings we’ve had in our campaigns is a huge number of small donors. We literally have a network all over Virginia of thousands of folks that have written small checks to our campaign (hint, hint). Our donor base is more than three times the size of ANY other elected state Republican Delegate or Senator. If just our donors come to a convention for us, and half of them bring their spouse, we would have over 2/3 of the votes that we will need to win the nomination.

Of course, beyond our donor base, we’ve got a volunteer base of many hundreds of activist volunteers not only here in Northern Virginia, but we’ve had help from literally every corner of the Commonwealth – some of them have driven up to help us during our races, others have made phone calls or provided other volunteer help right from their homes. We will be calling on those folks to help again and to come to the convention in 2009 to put us over the top. Again, we have a large base of volunteer supporters to call upon in addition to our significant donor base, and we think that’s a great position to start this race. If they come through, we’ll win.

Now, there is a reason that we have the best volunteer and donor base in the Commonwealth. It is because I have stayed true to the conservative principles that I have advertised in my campaigns. Simply put, I am a conservative at heart. It’s not just positions, it’s who I am. I am unapologetically pro-life and anti-tax, and I have been the biggest defender of the 2nd Amendment and property rights in the Virginia State Senate since my arrival. And I have done all of this in some of the toughest political territory for a conservative, not merely in Northern Virginia, but in inner Northern Virginia, in Fairfax County – the biggest single vote prize in the Commonwealth in statewide races.

Part of the reason for the loyalty of our base is not simply my leadership on virtually every issue of interest to conservatives, it is also because I have been advancing conservative positions in what has been a very hostile environment for conservative principles in Virginia – the Virginia State Senate – and then going home to Fairfax to defend my conservative positions in election after election – always as one of the Democrats’ top targets statewide.

Because we’ve been working in Fairfax’s tough political territory, we’ve had to run the leanest and most efficient grassroots campaigns in the Commonwealth, and we will bring that same hard-working style of grassroots campaigning to the race for Attorney General. I am confident that we can be competitive statewide, but now we’re going to hit the road and find out. If the response to our exploratory effort from Virginia Republicans is positive this year, then we will proceed to a full blown campaign, probably by the end of the year.

This is the beginning of a new campaign, and we intend to run a campaign that the founding fathers would be proud of. A campaign that consistently applies conservative principles to today’s pressing issues. We don’t offer the citizens of Virginia a government that caters to their every whim and want, but a government that provides ample opportunity for each person to achieve his or her greatest potential.

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Podcast at Bearing Drift
Tonight, after our announcement, I joined Jim Hoeft for a podcast that you can listen to here:
http://bearingdrift.com/2008/03/31/vpod-state-sen-ken-cuccinelli-candidate-virginia-attorney-general/

Ready to Get On Board?
While we help all our candidates running in 2008, we’re also going to start recruiting for 2009 right now – today. Are you ready to commit to supporting me for the GOP nomination for Attorney General? I hope so! If you are, please sign up now by clicking here and signing up today! And then forward this on to your friends to sign them up too! First one to 10,000 wins!

Sincerely,
Senator Ken Cuccinelli
Virginia 37th District