Today in dick moves...

In the name of Lloth, Queen of evil, it is
Steve's turn to take out the recycling.

So did you ever have siblings or housemates? If so, you're probably familiar with the low-level spell known as fives. Back in college when I was living with six or seven housemates and curb-score couchspace was at a premium, the rule was that if you needed to get up for a snack or to use the bathroom you could save your seat by saying fives first. Similar to shouting shotgun before getting in the car or touching your nose and saying not it when the cat throws up, invoking fives created an impenetrable forcefield of ass-defection which would allow you to keep your place for five minutes. It was a simple incantation and it worked well, but in our adult lives we put away such childish things and just rely on others to act like grown-ups.

"Hey I'm back, what I miss-uh...are
you goddamn kidding me?"

-Senator Henry Marsh

Unfortunately, acting like grown-ups is a concept lost on Virginia Republicans. Yesterday Senator Henry Marsh, a Democrat in the evenly divided State Senate, went to Washington to go to the inauguration. While he was gone, Republicans led by Senator John Watkins took advantage of the temporary one-seat advantage to push through a redistricting bill. Yup, while a 79-year-old civil rights attorney was attending the second inauguration of our first black president on Martin Luther King Day the Republicans swooped in and redrew the districts to favor the GOP.

I think this probably goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway: this is bullshit. I'm sure there are legitimate reasons to redraw a district but I'm fairly certain that because they aren't voting Republican enough isn't one of them.

"Hey, I'm just trying to level the playing field for candidates who can't win 
due to people hating them and everything they stand for. What's the problem?"

-Senator John Watkins, missing the

point of the electoral process