West Virginia Blue
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* Our condolences go out to the family of Stanley Reynolds of Lashmeet, the Iraqi war fatality who was buried this weekend.
* Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito was in Iraq recently, perhaps even on the very same day that Mr. Reynolds died in a helicopter crash. Yesterday she was on the Decision Makers TV show. WTRF-TV provides this teaser:
Capito sits down with host Bray Cary to talk about the message she'll be taking back to Capitol Hill -- American and Iraqi forces are getting the job done. The Iraqi politicians are not.
"There is a whole political part of this that is not working and is falling well short of benchmarks and that's where the reconciliation and the Shias and the Sunnis and the Kurds are not getting along and they're killing each other and that power struggle there, and so I think even with the military situation -- the security situation -- we don't have a political that goes with it. And at this point it's pretty dim," she said.
Did anyone catch the show? The real question is, now that Capito admits the surge has failed to meet any of its political benchmarks, is she finally prepared to support troop withdrawals? Don't hold your breath. She's been a W-I-N-O (waverer-in-name-only) through-and-through. She's yet to make a single vote against Bush administration Iraq policies.
* Here's one more step towards new high energy power lines criss-crossing the state. We'll be on the lookout for more opportunities to express opposition to the lines in West Virginia.
* The special session of the legislature came and went so fast we barely had a chance to mention it. If you missed the highlights, Lincoln Walks at Midnight has a helpful recap.
The Washington Post has an excellent story on the upcoming tablegaming vote.
On June 9, Bennett and her neighbors in Jefferson County will go to the polls to decide whether blackjack, poker, roulette and other forms of table gambling should also be allowed at the casino, which caters to customers from nearby Virginia and Maryland. Similar votes are scheduled the same day for three other racetrack casinos in West Virginia.
"I'm still undecided how I'm going to vote," Bennett said, "but I think it will pass."
The West Virginia legislature approved a bill this spring legalizing table gambling at the four racetrack casinos, contingent on local approval. It was the third straight year the legislature took up the issue, which never had enough support until this year. The other tracks are in Hancock, Ohio and Kanawha counties.
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