Thanks Again, Keyser Police Department and Mineral County Sheriff's Department

I'm very thankful for our fast acting and efficient local law enforcement today.

I was helping out a little this afternoon with the bi-yearly clothing drive put on by Cheri Alt and Helping Hands, getting ready to take my son down for football sign ups. Normal summer day in Keyser, West Virginia.

Then I looked outside and saw a Keyser patrol car going the wrong way down Main Street. I walked out, thinking "that's odd." Then came people running and shouting. A man with a gun was behind the building and he had already shot at an officer.

We probably spent thirty minutes, men, women, and small children locked in the kitchen in the back of the Legion Hall. Oh, also my son Jared was there. On the phone the city police tried to get us information as soon as it became available. Luckily it did not take too long for police to corrall and apprehend the suspect at the Grand Central Business Center. They did their job quickly and no one got hurt. Yet we have to remember that they took their lives in their hands to keep us safe.

Last I heard, and this is unofficial, the guy was walking to the pool to shoot his family. That could be wrong, you know how stories go in a small town. I'm just thankful for the police and deputies today.

Does this change my feelings on gun control? Not at all. Had there been a law abiding citizen among us who was acarrying his own weapon, I'm sure folks would have felt much more secure.

Anyway, the story of the day is our law enforcement. Thank you guys for doing what you do!

Potomac Highlands Conservative Endorses Dr. Doug McKinney to Remain State Republican Chair

The Potomac Highlands Conservative is proud to endorse Dr. Doug McKinney to be re-elected as West Virginia Republican Party Chair.

At the end of July, the state Republican Party will have its annual summer meeting. At that time the state executive committee will vote to either retain Dr. McKinney as party chair or select Mike Stuart of Charleston.

The old adage says that you don't change horses in midstream. That in itself is true, unless the horse cannot get across the river. Lincoln had to change his horses several times in midstream before finding a winning general. However, Dr. McKinney has been able to put together a strong list of accomplishments since becoming chair. Under his leadership the state party retired its fairly considerable debt. He also worked to build upon the professional staff in place, trying to obtain for the party an experienced and professional executive director to build up the organization and other efforts. In the past few years, the evolution of the state party's internet presence has been very worthy of praise. Finally, Dr. McKinney led the effort to get the state Republican Party into its new headquarters on Kanawha Boulevard.

Dr. McKinney's opponent and his supporters have led an aggressive campaign that has tried to attack the incumbent chair's record. The attacks create some serious questions:

They have voiced their dislike of Executive Director Troy Berman. What would Stuart propose to do with Mr. Berman and the executive director position?

They have also attacked almost every aspect of the relocation of the party headquarters. Would they move the headquarters again?

And finally, what is Stuart's vision? In what way would he operate that would be substantially different?

The biggest problem created by a changeover in leadership at this time is the inevitable learning curve. Unless you have actually done the job before, there is a period of time where you have to get acclimated and learn the job. If you are cleaning house and bringing in your people, they also have their own learning curves. It is a short period of time from July to November. If elected, how long would it take for Stuart and his people to learn the job and then become effective?

Another obstacle in the path of a Stuart chairmanship is the byproduct of the negativity spawned by his campaign. On the blog that backs his candidacy, you get a daily dose of hatefulness, albeit generally from those leaving comments. They get their shots in at Dr. McKinney and his wife most often while also occasionally attacking House of Delegates candidate Gary Howell and Buddy Randolph. Some of Stuart's supporters have raised issues of method and leadership, but others more often stick barbs into other loyal Republicans. The cloud of negativity won't disperse quickly. A few words from Stuart would have shut down his supporters who simply seek to insult rather than raise legitimate questions.

Not only do we endorse Dr. McKinney, we also believe that the selection of a new chair should take place after the election. Changing the leadership on the eve of the contest makes little sense.

Abandoning a Sinking Ship

In the last days of the Bush White House, you had a sense of things unraveling. The tight ship sprang leaks, efficiency seemed to evaporate, staff jumped ship in large numbers, and the Bush presidency coasted into history.

You get the same sense of unraveling with Obama, but it is only a year and a half into a contentious and remarkably unsuccessful administration.

Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel is apparently preparing to leave after the midterm elections. His approach reeked of political thuggishness, but he remained the most pragmatic of a leftist lot. Emmanuel reportedly clashed repeatedly with idealists such as David Axelrod, demanding that initiatives be pared down to meet the reality that America did not want to buy what the Democrats were selling. Then Emmanuel got the blame when Obama ideas torpedoed his popularity and made him look more like a Columbia professor than an engaged president.

Rumors point towards a possible run for mayor of Chicago or governor of Illinois, but the stench will stick with him for some time. Obama has turned out worse than Carter even by the standards of the Left. Clinging to the idea that he appointed a Nobel Prize winner to the Department of Energy is pretty typical of Obama in desperation mode.

It will be interesting to see who all leaves the White House after November, especially if, as expected, the Democrats take a major hit. He joins White House Budget Chief Peter Orzag, expected to leave his office this fall.

Conceding the Border?

We have a border problem. Public lands almost a hundred miles from the Mexican border have been closed due to the presence of bandits coming across. The police chief of Nogales, Arizona, according to CNN, received threats that his officers would be targeted for assassination by Mexican drug cartels.

Mexico has lost control of its own territory and we have lost control of our border. Meanwhile the president plays more golf and entertains celebrities while occasionally pausing to condemn state governors for doing his job.

It is time for border state governors to mobilize their own National Guard and patrol their Mexican border. During the Boer Wars, the British built blockhouses along lines of sight. These blockhouses were impregnable and were constantly manned by small units or individuals. Anyone attempting to cross was killed on sight. It has come to that because the Mexicans coming across are not merely folks looking for the easy way to improve their lives. They include hardened killers who are ready to exploit our land of freedom to spread chaos and fear.

If we had a real president, what could he do? First of all, return the Central Intelligence Agency to its roots and launch covert operations. Blow up cartel facilities, assassinate cartel leaders, and in all ways possible, go old school on them. Drug cartels cannot match the level of destruction and violence that American intelligence can bring to their doorstep. If they want to ruin their own country, go ahead. When they threaten U. S. law enforcement, the time has come to strike and strike hard. There is little difference between a drug cartel and a terrorist group when both threaten our nation. Second, support the National Guard and Border Patrol with Predator drone technology or a spy satellite that can indicate when groups are coming across. Keep helicopter gunships available.

Lastly, cut off all social and educational aid to illegals. Jail employers that knowingly violate the law. Cut off the market forces that bring over workers and scare the bejesus out of the drug lords.

Some have not yet conceded American territory to violence. In a National Public Radio story below, a Texas sheriff has advised residents to arm themselves and prepare to kill if violence spreads across the border from the nearby Juarez Valley.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125737965

Don't Miss John Boehner in Morgantown!

From the Desk of: JOHN A. BOEHNER
House Republican Leader

David McKinley needs our help. That's why I hope you'll join me in Morgantown, West Virginia this Saturday, June 26th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Waterfront Place Hotel, to help him raise the critical funds needed to spread his message of fiscal responsibility and true conservative values. We need a new conservative majority in Congress to cut government spending, get control of the debt, and help create new jobs - and the path to that majority runs directly through West Virginia's First Congressional District.

This fall, we have the chance to stop the jobs-killing agenda being rammed through Congress by Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, and President Obama. But we need to elect conservative Republicans like David McKinley if we want to make it happen. In fact, the only way to scrap ObamaCare and stop a disastrous "cap and trade" national energy tax from becoming law is to pick up at least 39 Democrat-held seats in Congress.

You can help take the first step right here in West Virginia's First Congressional District. So please join me at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown, West Virginia for a reception with David this Saturday.

Thank You,
John Boehner
House Republican Leader

P.S. Please RSVP to (304) 214-9495 or visit Mckinley2010.com to make your contribution and show you support today.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's Statement on the Oil Crisis

No one has looked more presidential in the past several months than Governor Jindal. This is how government is supposed to work and this is why states' rights are important.

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We are fighting a war. There is no doubt that the ongoing BP oil spill is a full frontal assault on our Louisiana way of life.
From the beginning of this disaster more than 50 days ago, there have been many sorrowful sights of devastation in our wetlands and wildlife habitats. But there also have been true heroes emerging in the battles to protect our coast.
In the first weeks of the spill, we asked BP and the Coast Guard for their detailed plan for responding to an oil spill of this magnitude. As the oil started to come ashore and boom was late arriving in many areas, we again appealed to BP and the Coast Guard to meet the requests for resources outlined in our detailed parish plans. We were told to wait while they found more boom. Again, we did not wait. We moved ahead on our own, mobilizing the Louisiana National Guard to begin filling dozens of gaps in barrier islands along our coast.
Wind and weather conditions moved the oil into our coast again and again. We knew this oil spill was not going to be a single event for Louisiana; it is a war we will need to fight on many fronts.
We proposed 24 segments of sand booms to fortify against the oil. While the Corps' review process drug on, we took matters into our own hands and redirected our state-operated dredger on East Grand Terre to begin creating a sand boom wall of protection on that island. Only days after we directed this work, oil hit that area and today the sand boom on East Grand Terre is actively holding oil back from entering interior wetlands and waterways.
After weeks of delay, the Corps finally approved six segments in our plan. But the Coast Guard announced it would only call on BP to pay for one segment. We wouldn't take no for an answer. We got together again with coastal parish leaders and met with the president and National Incident Commander Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen.
We told BP to stop sending us lawyers and lobbyists; they had two choices — either begin work on the segments or get out of the way and let us begin the dredging work ourselves. We chose option two for them and signed an emergency contract to begin work on the sand boom segments ourselves — again taking matters into our own hands to protect our coast.
The war against this oil spill continues today, and our commitment to winning this war has only grown stronger. We will not wait on bureaucracy or wishful thinking. We will continue to move forward on our own to implement our own ideas for protecting coastal Louisiana, even when BP and the Coast Guard don't agree with our plans.
I know we can do this because of the many heroes we have fighting in this war alongside us — our coastal parish presidents, our National Guard troops, the fishermen who are laying out boom and the communities that are banding together to help one another in their time of need. We will protect our people and our communities and industries that make Louisiana the greatest state in the world.
And we will not rest until every drop of oil is off of our coast and out of our marshes and our water — and our seafood and our coastline are 100 percent whole again.
Bobby Jindal is Louisiana's governor.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

It was a spirited and sometimes acrimonious campaign between several men and women with good conservative credentials. They all vied for the Republican nomination for the First Congressional District of West Virginia. David McKinley on the right won while Mac Warner on the left made a strong surge at the end. When they met last Saturday at the Keyser Tea Party event, they clasped hands as old friends and gave each other credit in their speeches for running strong campaigns and being good men. This is a model for how Republicans need to get together and back each other for victory this November and beyond.