McDonnell defense challenges federal charges

From The Restoration Fund: Governor Bob McDonnell's legal team filed their first public motions in response to the government's wrongful indictment built upon a witness with no credibility. Please take the time to click on the below links which directly challenges the entire foundation of the government's case.

"Bob McDonnell is an innocent man.  He never entered into an illegal agreement with Mr. Jonnie Williams or Star Scientific, nor did he ever promise or provide them any official benefits.  To bring today's indictment, the federal government has concocted a never-before-used legal theory manufactured for the sole purpose of prosecuting Governor McDonnell and his wife.  This new theory contravenes settled judicial precedent and disregards longstanding Virginia law and practice, seeking to punish the McDonnells for conduct that was legal before today.  The government's rickety legal foundation, moreover, underlies a precarious factual case, built largely from immunized testimony purchased with under-the-table promises to a key witness who would otherwise face criminal liability and massive financial penalties.  The federal government's decision to use these deceitful tactics in order to prosecute a popular and successful Republican Governor immediately upon his leaving office is disgraceful, violates basic principles of justice, and is contemptuous of the citizens of Virginia who elected him." 

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To read the complete background on this case, click on the two links below.

Defense Motion 1
Defense Motion 2

See also the following from respected DC attorney Chris Ashby: 10 quick thoughts on the case against Bob McDonnell.

Related:
- Former Governor Bob McDonnell calls charges false, holds press conference.

Forbes, Wittman, Rigell: 'Sequester impact on military a disgrace'

By Reps. Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman, and Scott Rigell
The Daily Press

If you were told that your son or daughter was going to fly on an airplane that had only 70 percent of its required maintenance, or whose pilot had trained for less hours than optimally required to maintain proficiency, would you allow him or her to get on the plane? Of course not. Yet thanks to sequestration, the U.S. military is facing a situation where our sons and daughters are being asked to do more with less training, less maintenance, and less modern platforms. Today, the military is experiencing the greatest readiness crisis since the Vietnam War. Should the president and Congress fail to find a solution to our nation's budget woes, readiness will likely degrade even further. Forced to find immediate savings, the services have curtailed training and deferred maintenance in ways that threaten to damage our national security for decades.

Sequestration's roughly $500 billion in defense cuts over the next decade have come on top of the administration's already substantial reductions to national defense spending. Accordingly, the services have chosen to absorb the majority of these cuts by reducing their near-term readiness, which generally means less training for the men and women wearing our nation's uniform.

For Army and Marine units, other than those scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan, this means substantially less time firing live ammunition and fewer opportunities to train with the vehicles they may eventually take into combat.

Read the rest of this article here.

Goodlatte townhall: The question that didn't get asked

Monday's townhall meeting in Augusta County with Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-6th CD) was chocked full of people who are upset about Obamacare and want to see Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and others shut down the U.S. government in their pursuit of shutting down Obamacare.

So it was a surprise that this one question was not asked by anyone in the crowd of about 150 people: Why was Congress exempted from the Obamacare legislation that the rest of us have to abide by?