Pro-Life Congress Convenes

Many of the Libertarian members of the tea party movement have tried to minimize the importance of values voters in this last election, and discourage legislation from being pushed in this new congress. However, the election results gave us possibly the most pro-life congress ever, and a house speaker who wants to be the most "pro-life speaker in history."

Four key pieces of pro-life legislation will be introduced this session. Investigations will be conducted by Congressman Chris Smith into the exportation of abortions by President Obama, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Yesterday Congressman Mike Pence introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood. Since the House of Representatives sets the budget, Republicans should be able to accomplish this goal in this congress. Over 120 congressmen cosponsored the legislation. A pro-life house needs to defund Planned Parenthood.

"The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X." ~Congressman Mike Pence

Abby Johnson Exposes Planned Parenthood

Dear Friends,

On January 11, 2011, former Planned Parenthood director and 2008 "employee of the year" Abby Johnson will FINALLY be able to reveal all the secrets from behind the closed doors of the abortion business ...and why she left to join the pro-life movement!

After winning the legal battle against a massive Planned Parenthood lawsuit and restraining order --which was intended to silence her -- Abby is finally able to blow the whistle on her former employer and reveal ALL the shocking details of her conversion.

Abby's entire story has never been revealed publicly... UNTIL NOW!.

On Tuesday, January 11, Abby's story will be released to the world in a landmark book, UNPLANNED, published jointly by Tyndale House, Focus on the Family, and Ignatius Press. It's going to be huge!

One night before -- on Monday, January 10, at 9 PMEastern (8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific)-- YOU are invited to join Abby for a live webcast "sneak preview" of the no-holds-barred revelations which fill the pages of UNPLANNED.

Register for the FREE online event at: http://www.unplannedwebcast.com/

During the webcast, you will discover ...

* What initially attracted Abby to volunteer and then work for Planned Parenthood -- America's largest abortion chain -- even after being raised in a faithful Christian home
* The hidden personal secret that Abby had kept buried for years
* The shocking discovery that suddenly caused Abby to question everything Planned Parenthood had told her over eight years
* Planned Parenthood's confidential plans to expand its biggest money-maker -- abortion -- all across America
* The abortion industry's furious reaction when Abby decided to quit her job and join local and national pro-life efforts
* What Abby's court battle brought to light about Planned Parenthood's REAL agenda
* The single most effective way to reduce Planned Parenthood's abortion business and change the hearts and minds of clinic workers

You won't want to miss this eye-opening webcast!

The announcement about this event is being sent to hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and there is limited space available.

To grab your spot before the webcast is filled up, register to attend NOW, before it's too late: http://www.unplannedwebcast.com/

For Life,
Jacinta Whittaker

40 Days for Life - Alexandria, VA

P.S.- When you register for the webcast, they'll also send you the first chapter of Abby's breakthrough book, UNPLANNED -- for FREE! You'll be among the very first to peek inside the pages of the book the abortion industry tried to stop. Get chapter one now at: http://www.unplannedwebcast.com/

Mark Obenshain Calls on Political Parties to Stop Burdening Localities

Every time Virginia Republicans or Democrats choose a primary to nominate their political candidates they strap localities with the cost of the process. At a time when localities are hard pressed for money, political parties that claim to be fiscally responsible should not be forcing localities to shell out large amounts of money for them to choose a candidate. Primaries are not the only way for political parties to select a nominee in Virginia. Virginia political need to stop forcing local government to subsidize their operations. Thankfully Mark Obenshain is bringing up this issue this year in the General Assembly. In a recent e-mail Obenshain introduced his idea.

Ending Subsidies to Political Parties

Virginia is in a somewhat unique situation: we don’t allow voter registration by political party, but we still pay for party primaries. And the truth is, we pay through the nose, sometimes as much as $20 per voter.

There are perfectly good alternatives. Parties often choose to nominate via convention or party canvass, or through a “firehouse primary,” in which a limited number of polling places are opened in each locality, usually for fewer hours than in a government-run election. All of these methods are common, all are relatively affordable – and all are paid for by the political parties themselves.

If a political party wants a conventional primary, fine – but they can pay for it. Our localities are burdened enough as it is. If a party cannot or will not put up that much money, they can always go with a cheaper option. Our localities can ill afford it – and under my proposal, they wouldn’t have to.

It is highly doubtful this legislation will pass. Both parties have a vested interest in keeping the system as it is. However, Maybe legislators will do the right thing, help localities, and do the right thing. No matter what this is an important issue that needs to be raised.

Most Important Goal for 2011

Recently, a lot of the political discussion in Virginia has focussed on the 2012 Senate race. While this is an important race, it can not be the focus of Virginia conservatives this year. We have to be focussed like a laser on putting a conservative majority in the state senate. The state senate is the one body with a general election this year that the Democrats still control. If we are going to bring conservative reform to this state, we need to take the Democrats out of power in the state senate. However, as the Republicans showed the last time they controlled the state senate, just having a Republican majority is not enough. It has to be a conservative majority. We need enough conservative senators to elect a conservative majority, block tax increases from passing through that chamber, and enough votes to pass true reform legislation.

This year we will be endorsing state senate candidates who are committed to opposing all tax increases, and put a pro-life majority leader in charge of the state senate who will put a pro-life chairman in charge of the Health and Education Committee. If you know of incumbent state senators, or candidates for state senate who meet those criterion, please comment and let the blog know about them so we can promote them this year.

A Look Back on Last Year

With the dawn of 2011, it is a good time to look back on the last year. Countless blogs and political sites have recounted the biggest stories of the last year, and made predictions for 2011. I thought it would be interesting to see what stories from this site you thought were most important. The following is a list of the 5 most visited articles on this site from the past year.

1. Greg Habeeb for 6th District GOP Committee Chairman, Bill Stanley for 5th District GOP Committee Chairman; Ironically both of these men are running in special elections next Tuesday. They are both running strong campaigns, and will be fine replacements for Morgan Griffith and Robert Hurt.

2. How will the Student Loan provisions affect me? Part II; In many ways this speaks to the biggest story in VA politics of the year. D.C. passed a healthcare bill full of unknown and dangerous provisions, and Virginians have lead the way in fighting it.

3. Why Joshua Solovskoy resigned as Michael McPadden's Campaign Manager; This was one more story of the mess that was conservatives shooting themselves in the foot in the 5th District nomination fight. Hopefully we have learned our lesson and can avoid such destructive infighting in future nomination contests.

4. Virginians Should Vote NO on the Constitutional Amendments; If an organized campaign had formed at least one of these could have been beat...

5. Trixie Averill Supports Undermining the Republican Party; For an article written very late in the year, it definitely got a lot of traffic fast. It also shows one of the things this blog is committed to: holding Republicans, and especially party leaders accountable.

Let's work together this year and put a conservative majority in the state senate this year. While there is a lot of talk about the 2012 Senate race right now, the state senate elections are the only general election this year, and winning them is critical to continuing the momentum heading into 2012.

Tied for 6th Highest Ranked VA Conservative Blog

Following the closing of BNN, Tom White at Virginia Right has stepped up and created an aggregator for the Virginia blogosphere, Old Dominion Blogs. Over the weekend he created a ranking system for the different blogs in the VA blogosphere. To my pleasant surprise, VA Social Conservative tied for 9th overall, and 6th in the list of conservative blogs. Thank you all for your readership, and support over the last two years. I look forward to seeing what the next two years brings in VA politics.