NOTE FROM CONGRESSMAN FRANK WOLF

This letter arrived today from esteemed Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA-10th District). We very much appreciate his continued advocacy for local safety issues, human rights around the globe, as well as his repeated efforts to inspire the current administration to remember its promise for transparent government, promised by the candidate, and often touted by the new president with little or no change from the business as usual model Americans have come to loathe from both parties.

The congressman's report:

Dear Friends,

Congress is deep into the appropriations season. The House has passed seven of the 12 FY 2010 spending bills, with five more on course for consideration before the annual August congressional recess. This week the House will vote on the Energy and Water, and Financial Services appropriations.  The Transportation-Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations subcommittee on which I serve approved the THUD bill Monday evening, and that bill should be on the House floor later this month.

Transportation Improvements

The transportation spending bill approved by the subcommittee includes another $85 million for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail extension project.  This latest installment would bring the total federal share for the project to date to over $440 million. I am hopeful that both the full House and Senate will include this funding in the final version of the spending bill to continue the federal share for this critical project.  A national report earlier this month ranked the Washington, D.C., metro area as having the second worst traffic congestion in the nation, a dubious distinction that the area has held for a number of years.  Mass transit in the Dulles corridor is critical to relieving congestion on busy roads and will connect the nation‚s capital to one of the world‚s leading international airports.

My recent efforts also have focused on two transportation safety issues.  In light of the tragic accident that occurred on June 22 on Metro's Red Line, the Washington region‚s congressional delegation has worked together to secure $150 million in the FY 2010 transportation spending bill for Metro safety and maintenance improvements.  This funding would be matched by Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

The state's decision to close a number of rest areas on interstate highways in the Commonwealth is also of deep concern, and my letter to Governor Kaine urges the state to reconsider the decision. I fear that fatigued drivers, especially long-haul truckers, without convenient places to pull off the highway could increase the risks for accidents. This is a safety issue and the state has a responsibility to the hundreds of thousands of drivers on Virginia's highways to resolve this matter.

Attorney General Is Stonewalling

Earlier this year, President Obama stated that he ran "for president promising transparency, and I meant what I said. That is why, whenever possible, we will make information available to the American people so that they can make informed judgments and hold us accountable. My intention is to hold him and his appointees to his word.

As you will recall, I have been trying to get answers from Attorney General Eric Holder on the Justice Department‚s (DOJ) plans for the disposition of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  After waiting 118 days for a response to my letters of March 13, April 23, and May 13, my office received only a cursory acknowledgment from the department on July 7 that failed to answer a single question.  Similar questions from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have similarly been dismissed or gone unanswered.  The attorney general's blatant obstruction of this most basic responsibility leads me to question this administration's commitment to transparency and accountability.

Mr. Holder's failure to explain his decision to dismiss a recent voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party is also of great concern. Both the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and I have sent letters to the department seeking an explanation. My office has also called on the House Judiciary Committee and the DOJ inspector general to investigate this matter.

Disappointing Effort on Human Rights

My concerns are growing regarding the Obama administration's failure to date to champion human rights as a central part of American foreign policy.  My statement in the *Congressional Record* highlights those concerns, specifically with the administration's dealings with China, Cuba, Sudan, Egypt, North Korea, Vietnam, Iran and Russia. I was quick to criticize the Bush administration when its public rhetoric in the human rights arena failed to match its action. But in this new, young administration, it seems even the rhetoric is absent. 

I hope this information is helpful. For more on these and other issues, please visit my website. Please continue to share your views on matters of interest to you.

Best wishes,

Frank Wolf

ICE HALTS DETENTIONS AT VA FACILITY

THE NOVEMBER DEATH of a Prince William County man in immigration custody at Piedmont Regional Jail has prompted Immigration and Customs Enforcement to suspend placing detainees at the facility, three hours south of the District near Farmville, Va.

In recent years, the rural county jail has contracted with ICE at rock-bottom rates to become a principal storehouse for non-citizen detainees from Northern Virginia and the District awaiting deportation. But since the November 28 death of detainee Guido Newbrough, ICE has launched an investigation into medical care at the facility, and its detainee population has fallen from 330 to 53 as of Wednesday. The jail laid off 50 of its 135 employees this week.

"There is no effort underway to cease utilizing Piedmont. However, we have stopped housing detainees at Piedmont while we continue to monitor current conditions at the facility," said Cori Bassett, an ICE spokeswoman.

The suspension comes at a particularly sensitive time for Piedmont and the town of Farmville, which has 7,000 residents. Piedmont had been earning $46.25 a day for each of the ICE detainees it housed in dormitory-style cells with triple bunk beds. Business was so robust that a group of investors announced a deal with Farmville officials last year to build a $21 million, 1,000-bed, privately run immigration detention facility there, pledging to convert the job-starved town into a hub for ICE operations in the mid-Atlantic.

Yeah, buddy. Hustling investors can always find the cash when it comes to making yet another quick buck. We at the Two-Fisted Quorum expressly approve of better, even strict enforcement of this nation's immigration laws, including the rounding up, penalizing and deportation of those who have skirted the system, and honest news about mismanagement of detainees is always disappointing and sad, but something is repugnant about how seamlessly a group of investors always manages to scramble into place to "fill a need" just in the nick of time to make some easy money, especially at the public trough.

Read it all.

FAIRFAX COUNTY REVERSES POSITION

YOU HAVE HEARD IT OFTEN said that networking makes a difference. Well, that’s the minor epiphany that occurred with the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) protest last Tuesday. A coalition of like minded groups concerned about the onslaught of Cultural Jihad in America rose to the occasion. The result was push back against unrestrained Saudi Wahhabi hate doctrine in America.

The effort of the coalition caused the sudden reversal by the Fairfax (Virginia) County Board of Supervisors with the stunning statements by its Chairman, Gerry Connolly, running for the Congressional seat in the 11th District-Virginia. On a conference call today, members of the working party for the coalition that fielded last week’s stunning protest and media blitz talked about this. The consensus was that Chairman Connolly and the Fairfax Board of Supervisors got stung with a veritable hornet’s nest of adverse public opinion and phone calls.

Supporting the renewal of the lease for the Islamic Saudi Academy granted unanimously just a few weeks ago became a political liability, so they reversed their decision, 180 degrees. As we posted yesterday, Chairman Connolly threw it into the lap of the State Department regarding renewal of the lease to the ISA and verify what was in those hate texts cited by the USCIRF. All because, get this, “they couldn’t read Arabic” and determine, as the USCIRF report did, what was in those Wahhabi hate texts: incitement to commit violence and hatred of non-Muslims, us.

Pay particular attention to what Chairman Gene Connolly said at the May 19th hearing on the ‘good neighbor’ ISA versus what he said yesterday. Both he and the Fairfax Board of Supervisors look both ‘foolish and arrogant’. We’ll see if Connolly can pull this roasted chestnut out of the fire of public outrage and salvage his credibility for the Congressional campaign.

Below is the News Release from the United American Committee of Virginia that pays recognition to what it and the other participants in this worthy endeavor did. They included the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, Stop the Madrassas and our own ACT for America Virginia and Maryland volunteers. The protest against ISA and the infamous Wahhabi hate texts was organized by Andrea and Jim Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition. Of course without the USCIRF ISA hate text report released on June 11th this stunning reversal of fortune would not have occurred. This was push back against Saudi Wahhabi cultural Jihad, big time.

—Jerry Gordon

VIRGINIA DINERS PACKING HEAT

As the nine esteemed justices sitting on the United States Supreme Court wrestle with the legality of the DC Law banning all hand-guns, in a decision which will perhaps affect gun laws throughout the country, here is one working version of the Second Amendment from nearby Fairfax County in northern Virginia.

THE PATRONS AT CHAMPPS in Reston, an upscale restaurant and bar chain, were eating ribs and drinking beer on a recent Saturday when customer Bruce Jackson stood up and made an announcement: He was armed, and so were dozens of other patrons.

The armed customers stood up in unison, showing off holstered pistols. Mr. Jackson said a word or two about the rights of gun owners to carry firearms in Virginia, then thanked everyone for his or her attention and sat down. And the diners returned to their burgers and Budweisers.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) organized the dinner at Champps to prove a point: that the presence of armed customers in Northern Virginia restaurants would elicit little more than shrugs. The dinner—and several other restaurant visits throughout Northern Virginia last month—were a response to comments from the majority leader in the state Senate, Democrat Richard L. Saslaw, who said during a legislative debate that armed patrons would be unwelcome in Northern Virginia restaurants.

"In most urban areas, you walk into a restaurant with a gun on your hip, they're going to tell you to get out," Mr. Saslaw said.

In fact, with a few exceptions, the gun owners got their meals. The group went to eight different restaurants last month—at two of them, they were asked to leave. More often than not, though, their presence failed to generate a stir.

Read it all.