From a news round-up in The Washington Post (Third item):

Dena Schlosser, 35, who admitted killing her baby daughter by severing the girl’s arms, was guided by Matthew 5:29-30, in which Jesus refers to cutting off body parts to cast away sin, Schlosser’s attorney said. David Haynes said Schlosser was mentally ill at the time.

Gee, if interpreting the bible literally is a sign of mental illness, we have a lot of Bush supporters who need to be institutionalized.

Meanwhile, Christians want everyone to be one.

In Terrebonne Parish, La., an organization is petitioning to add “Merry Christmas” to the red-lighted “Season’s Greetings” sign on the main government building and is selling yard signs that read, “We believe in God. Merry Christmas.” And a Raleigh, N.C., church recently paid $7,600 for a full-page newspaper ad urging Christians to spend their money only with merchants who include the greeting “Merry Christmas” in ads and displays.

…”Why not simply require stores owned by Jews to put a gold star in their ads and on their storefronts?” the Rev. Jim Melnyk, associate rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh, wrote in a letter to the editor.

It’s what we call the slippery slope.

Turnout was less than 23 percent but “[o]fficials had predicted a turnout of about 10 percent.” Miller, who replaces Thelma Drake, the conservative Republican who was elected to Congress last month, will need to run again next November. Ball, her opponent, said “supporters shouldn’t ‘throw their signs away yet.’” All six delegates representing Norfolk are now Democrats.

Paula Miller appears to have eked out a victory in the special election in the 87th district that includes Norfolk. The Virginian-Pilot is reporting tonight the former TV newcaster defeated the right-wing Republican Michael Ball by 92 votes, handing the Dems — and moderate Republicans who backed her — an important victory. Turnout was about 23%.

As Jeb Bartlet would say, “What’s next?” [Editor’s Note: Thanks to the reader “ReadMyLipstick” for catching my earlier typo on our mythical president’s first name.]

This has discouraged more than one candidate.

Sharon Pandak was all for running for the Democratic attorney-general nomination, all for talking about the issues facing Virginia’s next top prosecutor. What she wasn’t all for was spending so much time on fund raising. “I had miscalculated the amount of time that I would need to spend raising the funds necessary to be able to wage a viable campaign,” the former Prince William county attorney told The Augusta Free Press Monday afternoon. Pandak had announced earlier in the day that she was withdrawing her candidacy for the party nod.

Now here’s a pandering idea.

The state’s GOP leadership has apparently peaked into the Democrats playbook and decided to commit fratricide. Bitterness and recriminations are threatening to extend the controversy even further. Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine must be giddy. A former GOP state treasurer, Richard F. Neel Jr., has filed a conflict of interest complaint, alleging that the prosecutor, a Republican, tried to minimize the political damage to Atty. Gen. Jerry Kilgore. In so doing, he’s entrapped Virginia U.S. Sen. George Allen into the feud.

The complaint asserts no wrongdoing by Allen, but it is the first document to draw such explicit connections between [Paul J. McNulty, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who prosecuted the case], prominent figures in the eavesdropping case and the popular first-term senator and former governor.

Allen was surprised at the claims and said he has never communicated with McNulty throughout the 2 1/2-year investigation.

“Let him exercise his prosecutorial discretion. I will note there have been several convictions in the prosecution of the wrongdoers,” Allen said after addressing Monday’s gathering of Virginia’s electoral college at the state Capitol.

The complaint also exposes conflicting personal allegiences (sic) within the leadership of the state GOP that have been forever ripped apart by the eavesdropping scandal. Neel is a close friend of Matricardi’s and contends that Matricardi became a scapegoat so that the role of others within the party _ and their punishment _ might be minimized or avoided.

After Thomson resigned as party chairman, Neel sought the position to which Kate Obenshain Griffin, an ally of Allen and Kilgore, was eventually appointed. Neel was the state party’s treasurer until this year.

If you’re a Democrat, you’ve got to love the irony of the GOP’s self-flagellation. I don’t know the politics of Neel but wonder if this has anything to do with the ideological split among Republicans. Any thoughts or insights are appreciated.

With the last of town hall meetings on the proposal allowing the top three Virginia universities to gain more autonomy now behind us, Gov. Mark Warner doesn’t seem anymore enthralled with the idea than in the past.

Gov. Mark R. Warner on Thursday again voiced reservations about a proposal to grant “charter status” to three leading Virginia universities. But he vowed to resolve the issue next year.

Warner, echoing earlier words of caution, said the plan should not be considered in isolation. “Rather than look at special status for one, two or three, we’re saying, ‘Let’s look at what the whole state needs,'” he said.

“What the whole state needs” doesn’t sound like, to his credit, he’s ready to jettison the other schools to second class citizen. Still, details are missing.

Warner warned that the plan could raise tuition at the universities, though the three presidents have promised to avoid big increases. The governor also questioned why William and Mary should have more freedom in construction than larger campuses such as James Madison and Old Dominion universities.

The governor said his goals include increasing the number of people attending and graduating from college while maintaining affordability, expanding faculty research and filling shortages in nursing, teaching and engineering.

Filling teacher slots is all about one thing: the lack of pay they get. As for engineers, there seems to be a lot of engineers still looking for work after the tech meltdown in 2000. Few kids are majoring in technology for that reason.

Barnie Day wants to put the charter idea to a vote – in November 2006.

The thing not to do is to let past neglect, past funding cuts, somehow become the rationale for doing something foolish now.

There has been no debate of this proposal. There has been no real scrutiny of it. Two points here – if the “charter” idea is as good as it is being portrayed to be, then it will withstand withering examination; and if it is as good as it is being portrayed to be, there should be no rush, no hurry. If it is all that good, it won’t be weakened by the wait of a year or two.

At minimum, the legislature should hold public hearings in each of the counties of Virginia before they put any more distance between these universities and the people who own them. That might seem like a lot, but a lot is at stake here. What’s given away by charter can never, ever be taken back. In the matter of a charter, what is done by one legislature cannot be undone solely by another.

What would guarantee the debate, the scrutiny this proposal deserves, would be to give this matter some time and then put it to referendum. (2026 would be soon enough for me.) Let the people of Virginia who built and own these universities decide this matter directly.

With Virginia colleges expecting an increase of about 10,000 Virginia students wanting a college education in the coming years, new ideas are needed. With a good community college system, one hopes state legislators would be willing to force the better institutions to commit to taking any student who gets an associate degree at a community colleges.

In a new agreement with Old Dominion University, some Piedmont Virginia Community College students who were late in deciding to go for a bachelor’s degree will be able to transfer seamlessly.

Students with associate degrees in applied sciences – awarded for completion of occupational and technical programs – will be able to automatically transfer into ODU as juniors if they have at least a C average.

Until now, only students with associate degrees in arts and science could transfer automatically.

England’s Oxford University is widely known for producing some of the world’s best debaters, such as British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.
But last weekend, the school’s moot court team was defeated by two former home-schoolers from a small Virginia college named after American Revolution patriot and orator Patrick Henry.

It wasn’t clear to me until now who the new $1 million PAC Leadership for Virginia would be backing. News coverage had talked only about moderate Republicans. But the PAC has announced the first candidate donation: $50,000 to Democrat Paula Miller in the 87th district special election tomorrow, whereas two-thirds of her opponent’s money has come from other GOP politicians.

The PAC’s co-chairs are former Republican Del. Anne “Panny” Rhodes and James Hazel, a Republican who was a policy adviser to Gov. Warner. Among its major contributors is Frank Batten , chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors for Landmark Communications, which publishes The Virginian-Pilot. He donated $50,000 to the PAC, but did not have any say in its endorsement of Miller, said Patricia Hale, the executive director. Hale, a former Republican state senator in Washington, said her group is backing Miller because she “is focused on the future of our state. She wants the state to be economically strong.”