Dick Black is against a woman's right to choose what to do with her...

...Work product.

Catherine Read, a professional photographer, was at the NARAL Black OUT event on Thursday, along with a host of pro-Choice Loudouners and Fairfaxians, and took a ton of pictures, which she put on her facebook page, and...

Well...Let me let her tell you the rest of the story.

Apparently Dick Black's daughter Michelle Black Staton attempted to tag my photos not realizing AS THE OWNER OF THE PHOTO I have to give MY PERMISSION. Which I DID NOT. So Dick Black's campaign simply downloaded it from Facebook and used it for their email WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION OR PERMISSION!! Great judgment call for an attorney to make. I guess he thinks intellectual property doesn't mean the same thing on the Internet. Oct. 14, 2011. http://secure.campaigner.com/Campaigner/Public/t.show?O5Wl--AGQw-rwn1q3

 Here's a screen capture of the requests to tag the photos in question.

And here's a screen capture of the Dick Black fund-raising page, with the stolen photo:

When Dick Black says he is 100% against a woman's right to choose, HE MEANS IT.

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Don't like what Dick did? Donate to NARAL Pro-Choice VA or to Shawn Mitchell.

The Complete List of Candidates for the November 8th Election

Brought to you by the patience and kindness of Judy at the Loudoun Registrar and Board of Elections and the website at the Virginia State Board of Elections.

Offices and Candidates within offices listed alphabetically:

Board of Supervisors

• Chair (At-Large)
• Tom Bellanca (D)
• Scott York (R)
• Algonkian
• Denise Moore Pierce (D)
• Suzanne Volpe (R)
• Ashburn
• Ralph Buona (R)
• Valdis Ronis (D)
• Blue Ridge
• Jim Burton (I)
• Janet Clark (R)
• Broad Run
• Cliff Keirce (I)
• Andrea McGimsey (D)
• Shawn Williams (R)
• Catoctin
• Malcolm Baldwin (D)
• Geary Higgins (R)
• Dulles
• Matt Letourneau (R)
• Larry Roeder (D)
• Leesburg
• Kelly Burk (D)
• Ken Reid (R)
• Sterling
• Eugene Delgaudio (R)
• Al Nevarez (D)
• L. Ali Shahriari (I)
  

Constitutional Offices

• Commonwealth's Attorney
• Jim Plowman (R)
• Jennifer Wexton (D)
• Sheriff
• Mike Chapman (R)
• Steve Simpson (I) (no campaign website as of 08/03/2011)
• Ron Speakman (I)
• Commissioner of the Revenue
• Bob Wertz (R)
• Treasurer
• Roger Zurn (R)

House of Delegates

• 10th District
• Dave Butler (D)
• Randy Minchew (R)
• 32nd District
• Tag Greason (R)
• 33rd District
• Joe May (R)
• 34th District
• Barbara Comstock (R)
• Pam Beck Danner (D)
• 67th District
• Eric Clingan (D)
• Jim LeMunyon (R)
• 86th District
• Tom Rust (R)
• 87th District
• Mike Kondratick (D)
• David Ramadan (R)

School Board

• At Large
• Jay Bose
• Bob Ohneiser
• Tom Reed. 08/03/2011 website under construction
• Algonkian
• Eileen Tagg-Murdock
• Debbie Rose
• John Stevens
• Ashburn
• John Andrews
• Eric Hornberger
• Debbie Piland
• John Ryan
• Chris Souther
• Blue Ridge
• Priscilla Godfrey
• Jill Turgeon
• Broad Run
• Kevin Kuesters
• Catoctin
• Jennifer Bergel. 08/03/2011 front page unavailable, no "paid for" or "authorized by" statement. (ht Nova Commonsense)
• Pablo "Paul" Arias
• Dulles
• Anjan Chimaladinne
• Margaret Michaud
• Jeff Morse
• Leesburg
• Bill Fox
• Tom Marshall
• Mark Nuzzaco
• Sterling
• Brenda Sheridan

Soil and Water Conservation Director, Loudoun District (choose three)

• Peter Rush
• Chris Simmons
• James Wylie

State Senate

• 13th District
• Dick Black (R)
• Shawn Mitchell (D)
• 27th District
• Shaun Broy (D)
• Donald Marro (I)
• Jill Holtzman Vogel (R)
• 31st District
• Barbara Favola (D)
• Caren Merrick (R)
• 33rd District
• Mark Herring (D)
• Patricia Phillips (R)

Now it's your turn. Do your research, be an educated voter. Vote for the person who can do the most for you and your community as your life is now, not as you wish your life would be.

Now THAT's what I'm talking about

Cliff knocked 151 doors yesterday.

Jennifer Wexton's been out every day (though she needs to post about it more!)

Shanyn Ronis is wearing her shoes out.

I'm so proud of my canvassing proteges! Keep it up!

Random bullets of a busy weekend

• NARAL Pro-choice VA's LUNAFEST event was splendid! Valdis Ronis and his daughter Shanyn joined us, along with many others. We also got donations from many local businesses, as well as local friends. So here is a thank you to Valdis, Erika, The Reign of Cats and Dogs, and Rouge Spa. Your generosity is appreciated.
• The kick-off for Cliff Keirce was terrific. Bonefish was generous with the food and drinks. I had great conversations with lots of people. People from within and without the new Broad Run were there. Including some people I think Andrea would have expected to be fully with her. I gave a donation, and have pledged to walk with Cliff in Oakgrove and many other precincts. 
• Went to two picnics (one on Saturday with my son's after-school, one on Sunday with the UUs of Sterling).
• On Sunday at church, I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for being a part of the UUs of Sterling. The members of that church are all community-oriented, politically aware, generally progressive. I realized that leaving the LCDC didn't mean I had left the only community that was involved locally in causes that are important to me. 

LCDC Members: I'm not asking any of you to choose sides

It's not going to hurt my feelings if you want to stay with the LCDC. It's not going to hurt my feelings if you just want to focus on getting through this election, and not get involved in any of this sturm und drang. It's really okay.

I mean it.

And thank you for the calls and emails. I really appreciate each and every one.

While we're discussing the door-knocking season

There's one possible candidate who won't be needing me to canvass for him this year.

Stevens, I couldn't be prouder of all the work you've done for Loudoun and Virginia the last few years. Thank you for letting me be part of it.

It's getting easier to be green

Up until last November, neither of our cars were terribly efficient. I had a 2002 Kia Sedona, he had a 1997 Jeep Wrangler. Both were bought used. The Kia was bought when our son still had a lot of equipment to haul around.

We were thinking about getting more efficient vehicles, but you know what the greenest car is? One that you already have that's in working condition. So we waited...and we dreamed of better than 20 miles to the gallon.

Then I was in a collision, and the Kia was replaced with a 1998 Toyota Camry. People, I regularly get over 30 miles to the gallon in that puppy, just tootling back and forth from work!

And then we had to replace the Jeep. This past weekend, we got a 2002 Honda Civic. It's even more efficient than the Toyota! Plus I work just a few miles from home! This is so exciting!!! Just as Big Oil is taking advantage of unrest in the Middle East to gouge consumers, we're thumbing our noses at them and benefiting local businesses at the same time!!

The Toyota was purchased at Lindsay Volkswagen. We went back to them last week, but they didn't have anything in our price range this time (though they had a sweet red Mini Cooper), so we got the Honda from Honda of Dulles. We had a great experience at each of their stores, and I've recommended them to friends. If you're in the market for a car, you really could not do better than to shop at either of their stores --- and they're even in our district!

Here's the thing

Blogging at work, and reading blogs at work, is a major no-no. So I wait until I get home. And then I make dinner, and eat dinner, and play with my son, and watch Red Dwarf, and put my son to bed, and then I read blogs. And then I'm just pooped. So that's what's been going on with the lack of bloggish activity on this here blog.

But there's a whole hell of a lot going on in the world. Wisconsin. OH MY GOD, how much do you love the Dem Senators in Wisconsin? And the protesters? I am so stoked by what's going on there. This is the stuff I read about when I was a kid, and sang songs about at summer camp, and everything. I am totally living vicariously through my Twitter feed.

I think that the Wisconsin GOP are going to get seriously spanked by the voters for this one. And I, for one, can't wait.

Perhaps more federal Dems will take their cue from the Wisconsin 14. Standing firm against stealing from the poor is a Democratic value.

And last but not least, Johnny Mathias who worked on Stevens's campaign for Delegate, is in WI as we speak, and is reporting LIVE! on Facebook and Twitter. He is awesome.

I am so angry. And sad. And did I mention angry?

Virginia is regulating abortion clinics like hospitals.

One commenter on that article said:

I don't see how this legislation restricts access for women to abortions. It simply requires that abortion clinics meet the same medical guidelines as hospitals, depending on how they are classified. It in no way infringes on anyone's right to an abortion. In fact, Roe vs. Wade specifically leaves the regulation of abortions to the States.

 Well, charleyp1, I'll tell you how this restricts access. Five clinics in the state currently meet the standard. First trimester abortions are generally done without general anesthesia. First trimester abortion is one of the safest  surgical procedures that are performed anywhere, when performed by a licensed medical practitioner. It is a safer procedure than:

• Root canal
• Colonoscopy (which is done under general anesthesia)
• Vasectomy (which is done under general anesthesia)
• Endoscopy (which is done under general anesthesia)

 But those procedures are allowed to be done in a regular doctor's office. Dentists, Urologists, Proctologists, and Gastrologists do not need to have hospital standards to perform these surgeries. They don't, for example, need to have access for ambulances.

In Virginia there are currently 22 clinics at which abortion, A LEGAL PROCEDURE, can be obtained.

Under the new law, only 5 of those clinics will be able to continue to operate.

Let me make this clear, THIS LAW WILL NOT REDUCE THE NUMBER OF ABORTIONS. Abortion rates remain steady no matter how difficult safe, legal abortions are to obtain. What this law will do is make it more expensive to obtain an abortion.

charleyp1 further says:

I for one applaud this effort. After the medical horror/freak show in Philadelphia in which an abortion doctor left the surgical procedures to his nurses and had pilles[sic] of fetal body parts scattered about his office and storage freezer, I think a little regulation of this nearly unregulated industry is in order.

 charleyp1, abortion is already highly regulated.  licensing boards, the Board of Health, Obstetrics Boards, all oversee the OB/GYNs who perform abortions. The Philadelphia incident was an UNLICENSED person who was performing ILLEGAL late term abortions. Desperate women, who could not obtain legal abortions, went to him. Virginia's new law will increase the likelihood of a Philadelphia incident happening here in Virginia.

I want to thank Senator Mark Herring for standing up for women.

If you are as upset by the outcome of this vote as I am, may I suggest that you

Oya Simpson is a finalist for an award!

Oya does a terrific job every year putting together the Earth Day celebration at Clyde's in the Broadlands. She's a phenomenal organizer. Please vote for her!

(via John Stevens)