This morning, the Washington Post reported on the latest outrage by Virginia Republicans. One day it's global warming denial, another day it's tearing up the social safety net for our most vulnerable citizens, and another day it's rejecting federal money for unemployment benefits for Virginia citizens. Well, today, it's Republicans attempting to turn Virginia into Uganda on anti-gay discrimination. According to the Washington Post:
The decision by the majority of those who bothered to go to the polls last November to put a fundamentalist in the governor's mansion and a far-right, homophobic guy in the attorney general's office will surely cause problems for Virginia. I'll get to one relating to attracting employment to Virginia later. But, first, the side show that has become Virginia governance.
We all know by now that incoming Republican Bob McDonnell did not see fit to continue the eight-year pattern by Democratic governors of issuing a non-discrimination policy that rejected bias in hiring and promotion of state employees based on their sexual orientation.
He contended that only the legislature had the ability to protect those citizens from the actions of bigots. That is his "opinion," despite the fact that the Code of Virginia gives the governor the right to set policy for state agencies, unless prohibited from doing so by the Code of Virginia.
Meanwhile, certifiable nutjob Del. Bob Marshall (R-Far Right Field) has made another ridiculous, homophobic comment about a bill introduced by Democratic Sen. Don McEachin to do what the governor said was necessary - make discrimination in state hiring on the basis of sexual orientation illegal by legislative action.
"I think there first should be some finding that homosexuals, as a class, are being discriminated against," Marshall said. "In all of my experience and reading, gay individuals seem to have more income, to attend more cultural events, to take more vacations than the rest of us."
Words escape me in commenting on the stupidity of that remark. So, I'll just move on to the harm these homophobes may cause the state.
Virginia has a problem. All the progress we have made to gain a new reputation for our Commonwealth as a high-tech, modern, sophisticated state is in jeopardy. We now are at risk of going back to being viewed as Ignorant 'Ol Virginny, one of those bottom of the barrel, backwoods places that are referred to most often as the butt of jokes, not as models for anyone to draw from and admire.
While the new Republican leadership will surely provide lots of opportunities for embarrassment, the smart money is betting that the antics of our new Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, will do the most to tar our state as some kind of Neanderthal haven that hip young people, cutting-edge businesses and smart investors will do their best to avoid.
In fact, General Cooch has started his Reign of Error already, with his ridiculous legal challenge to the US Environmental Protection Agency's finding that climate change presents a threat to human health.
What interest (not to mention scientific expertise) does his office have to drag the state into such a quixotic exercise? Why is Cooch gearing up to spend your tax dollars to (literally) tilt at windmills, promoting Exxon-Mobil's self-interested conspiracy theories as a way to obstruct environmental progress? Why embark on a quest that can only make Virginia the laughing stock of the educated world? The only explanation is that the man is just simply a fanatical fruitloop.
So, how to solve a problem like Cuccinelli? Only one answer: YOU FIGHT.
I am about to send emails to my elected officials requesting that they sponsor resolutions -- both in the General Assembly and at the local government level -- condemning this action and demanding that taxpayer dollars not be wasted on this travesty. Following are some of my thoughts on what such resolutions might say. I welcome your contributions and suggestions as well.
It's been either "no-action" or "the wrong-action" since the GOPers took power in Richmond. First, Gov. Bob McDonnell begged for more time - with no criticism, please - for his not having budget amendments ready to cover his $2 billion refusal to go along with a tax increase in the budget submitted by former Gov. Tim Kaine.
Next, McDonnell has not issued an executive order barring discrimination in state hiring and workforce, breaking a 36-year practice by governors of both parties of making a formal statement on that issue one of their first acts in office.
McDonnell justified his inaction to the Washington Post by insisting that the executive order of Gov. Kaine is still in effect - minus the protection Kaine offered for sexual orientation. That contention makes no legal sense from a man who for four years was the state' top lawyer. How can all but one part of an executive order be said to be in effect? The "logic" escapes me.
Then, the Republican attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, recommended the withdrawal of Gov. Tim Kaine's state policy change that would allow government employees to add same-sex partners and other dependent adults living in their households to their state health benefits.
David W. Marsden, Democrat, who just won re-election to the position of Delegate in the 41st House District, has made it official: he is running for the 37th Senate District seat vacated by Republican Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, who won the slot of Commonwealth's Attorney General in the recent November election. The election will be Tuesday 12 January 2010.
Marsden has hit the ground running. Much of his staff is already in place, and he has lined up two field offices already to cover the sprawling 37th District, which runs diagonally across Fairfax County from West Springfield northwest through Chantilly and Centreville to the edge of Manassas Battlefield, but is basically centered in Burke with US Route 50 as its northern boundary and Clifton on its southern. Many residents of the 37th Senate District know Dave and have already voted for him, since 10 of the 14 precincts of the Senate 37th District are in both the 37th and his House 41st Districts, and about 30 percent of the residents of the Senate District are also in his House District. Marsden has served in the Assembly for four years as the Delegate from Burke, that is, the 41st District. In the 2009 Republican landslide, Dave won with 49.66 percent of the vote, beating Republican Kerry Bolognese (48.66 percent) and Independent Green C. Monique Berry (3.49 percent).
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
That was the final line spoken by Agent Hotchner in a rerun on A&E of an episode of "Criminal Minds." What, might you ask, could it possibly have to do with the race for Attorney General in the Commonwealth of Virginia?
The Democratic candidate Steve Shannon is someone I first met through his wife, Abby, whom I met because she was the LA who handled education for my friend Rep. Nick Lampson of Texas. And Steve and Abby were concerned with dragons, the dragons who abducted little children, which is why they were responsible for founding the first Amber Alert in the DC metro area.
And Steve was a prosecutor, someone who handled crimes committed by sexual predators.
And whether or not dragons exist, monsters do. Sometimes they run for political office. I believe if one looks at the public record of Steve's opponent, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli, one will see someone whose record in public office and his declared intentions have monstrous implications. Which is why this race is so important.
GOP candidate for AG, Ken Cuccinelli, has long expressed hate and intolerance against some members of society. But, according to the Virginia Pilot, he has reached new depths. He's implicitly threatened our gay citizens with discrimination, even possibly removing them from government positions. Said the Virginia Pilot:
To put it politely, Cuccinelli's election would bring embarrassment to Virginia, instability to the state's law firm and untold harm to the long list of people who don't fit his personal definition of morality.
Here's the problem:
He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy against gays and lesbians observed by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell: " My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They're intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it's appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don't comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society."
To put it politely, Cuccinelli's election would bring embarrassment to Virginia, instability to the state's law firm and untold harm to the long list of people who don't fit his personal definition of morality.
In the attorney general's race, Virginians have a choice between a low-key fellow partial to brown suits, and a pugnacious culture warrior more apt to need flameproof gear.
This now means that most of the major papers that have endorsed for AG have chosen Shannon: Washington Post, Roanoke Times, and now the Pilot.
(I am going to use this video at the top of every article I write about Steve Shannon/Ken Cuccinelli (unless a better one summarizing Ken comes along.)
Don't say I didn't warn you! Regarding the candidacy of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, we have told you what you'd get if he is elected on Nov. 3. Now, the Virginia Pilotcalled him a "pugnacious culture warrior." And, in its own endorsement of Steve Shannon for AG, the Roanoke Timessaid:
When Virginians choose their next attorney general on Nov. 3, they will either continue the levelheaded, no-nonsense approach preferred by most previous holders of that office or install an ideological firebrand who would impose his radical morality on the commonwealth. We recommend they select the former in Steve Shannon.
Ken Cuccinelli, "a radical firebrand." I couldn't have said it better myself.
Steve Shannon has the experience, the expertise, the understanding of the job and the ability to prioritize Virginia's legal needs. The AG is the state's legal counsel, the Commonwealth's top lawyer. Steve Shannon would be that. As the Virginia Pilot noted:
Steve Shannon's style is the better fit for Virginia. His thoughtful approach would preserve the reputation of the state's law firm as a source of reliable legal advice.
No one would ever call the editorial page of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star a bastion of liberal thought. Thus it is newsworthy that in the AG race they have chosen to strongly support Steve Shannon for AG and to criticize his opponent.
Here's the criticism:
is bill to push Congress to deny citizenship to the kids of illegal immigrants is the sort of idea that jollies only the least tolerant Virginians, and another failed measure, making criminals of journalists who knocked on the doors of mourners, is further evidence of Mr. Cuccinelli's vulnerability to ad hominem temptations.
And here's the praise of Shannon:
For most of his career, Mr. Shannon, 38, has protected children from the despicable criminals who exploit the blind spots of a mobile, techno-chaotic society. Just after finishing U.Va. Law School, Mr. Shannon and his wife brought the then-new idea of the anti-kidnapping Amber Alert to the Washington metro area and arduously sold it to skeptical authorities. As a Fairfax prosecutor, Mr. Shannon zeroed in on child molesters. Today--yes, we mean right now--he can tell you exactly how many computerized kiddie-porn transactions took place in Virginia yesterday. (Smile, pervie, you're on Candid Keystroke.) He can speak knowledgeably about gang violence, cropping up even in Virginia's boonies, and his prosecutorial and legislative record glitters with efforts to shield consumers from fraud.
And here's their conclusion:
Mr. Shannon, in short, strikes us as more temperate and more adaptable to the realities of social change. We endorse him for attorney general.
7 of 8 business groups have endorsed Shannon. Now we are seeing normally reliable Republican editorial pages doing so as well.
Update: Bob McDonnel is apparently so emboldened in his deceptions that he tells Virginians one thing, for example, that he is moderate, as recently as last night in Salem, VA, and then goes to Liberty University this very day and says this.
We are sick of mopping up Republican messes. Both on the national and statewide stages, we have undergone massive de-funding of important programs so that the well-heeled might be further enriched. We've seen our national and statewide treasure parceled off to the (not always) highest bidder. And now we've seen our Treasuries having to plug the leaks of the profligate. Though we in Virginia have thus far fared better than much of the country, the mess that George W. Bush made continues to bedevil the statewide budget. And yet instead of helping to constructively mop up the Bush mess, GOPhers posture, claim credit for things they had no real hand in, and downright lie about Creigh Deeds.
In all my nearly thirty years in Virginia, I have never heard so much bull spun by the GOP, and to best Allen, Gilmore and Kilgore, there's a lot of bull-slinging. They do it with apparent near-impunity. This year, there are better fact-checks in the so-called MSM than usual. Yet, the fibbing is so bad that even those newspapers endorsing McDonnell do so tepidly, as if holding their collective noses. So the voter really has no excuse. And yet the prevaricators of the other side continue to fool them, according to polls. It's become a veritable Liar's Poker game. But it's too important a situation for Virginians to be gamed.
And so the liars' poker charade of a platform and the cascading lies about Bob McDonnell's opponent stack deception upon deception. BS Bob's false claims attempt to rewrite history and shift blame from the Party of tax cuts and "No." His party gives away the revenue stream to those already doing the best in the lingering poor economy. And they propose doing more of it.
in today's paper theWashington Post completed its endorsement for statewide races in Virginia as a sweep for the Dems, when it picked Steve Shannon over his Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli. The sub-title puts it in the proper context: Two Fairfax lawmakers are vying for the job -- one wonkish, one worrying.
The editorial is thoughtful, gives Cooch credit for bucking his party on some issues, but makes its concerns clear in words I have bolded in the opening paragraph:
THE RACE for attorney general in Virginia is a face-off between a pair of youngish lawyers, each from Fairfax County, each elected to the General Assembly this decade, and each now running his first statewide race. The similarities end there. While the Democratic candidate, Del. Stephen C. Shannon, is a mainstream former prosecutor -- strait-laced, sober, earnest almost to a fault -- his Republican opponent, state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, is a provocative hard-liner who at times has struggled vainly to attract a single vote for his more far-fetched initiatives.
I will not mince words. Nor will I even try to be polite. The choice is this: It's either a rational, experienced, mainstream, accomplished legislator or a wingnut who operates in the stratosphere. (They call liberals moonbats and then they give moonbat new meaning, as in a candidate (a slate, actually) who does everything except howl at the moon. Ken Cuccinelli howls about almost everything else, though, as you will see in some of the videos linked below.
In conjuction with the Prince William County Committee of 100, this debate will be webcast "Live" if at all possible tonight starting at 7:30 PM from the Verizon Auditorium on the George Mason University campus in Manansas Virginia. This event is being streamed while being "uploaded" to an "on-demand" URL for future replays.... We should start the stream for people to hook up to at approx. 7:15 PM Eastern Time.
(In the event the stream is unusable, the URL for the entire debate will be posted on the www.PWC100.org website within 2 days or sooner).
The Virginia League of Conservation Voters (VA-LCV) has just posted its 2009 Scorecard for all members of the General Assembly. If you want to know who in Richmond is working to protect your air, water, resources and future - or not - here is some essential information. And if numerical ratings aren't enough for you, the report goes into detail about the legislation upon which these scores are based, and records which legislators voted for or against which specific bills.
You will be shocked to hear that this year's Legislative Heroes, who voted 100% in favor of the most environmentally friendly legislation, are all Democrats. Donald McEachin was the only Senator to win this title in 2009, joined on the other side of the capitol by Delegates Ebbin, Englin, McClellan, Plum, Sickles and Toscano.
You will be doubly shocked to learn that the bottom quartile (scores below 25%) is populated entirely by Republicans. I'd like to highlight one in particular - Ken Cuccinelli, who is running to be Attorney General, where he would be in charge of enforcing environmental laws for the entire Commonwealth. Cooch's score was 10. (Be very, very afraid - or better yet, work your heart out to elect Steve Shannon for AG!)
uses video of 99th HOD wingnut candidate Catherine Crabill to go after Cooch:
Ryan Nobles of Channel 12 notes that Republicans are reluctant to go after Crabill because the Tea Partiers are among the few in the base who currently are motivated, but that Crabill was not someone they sought. They had no one else to run against Al Pollard. But she is on the Republican ticket, which makes her fair game in any statewide Republican race.
(an explanation from the point of view of a Deputy Sheriff who has to live with the consequences of court decisions and legislative actions - promoted by teacherken)
Since the Supreme Court's decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, Virginia has become center stage in how courts and law enforcement will deal with this new landmark ruling. The 5-4 decision authored by Justice Scalia held that it was unconstitutional to introduce certificates of analysis or lab sheets because it does not allow for a defendant to "confront" the witnesses against them. In the race for Attorney General, this has come front and center and mainly the first strike came from Republican Ken Cuccinelli in calling for a special session to fix the problem courts are now experiencing. Steve Shannon on the other hand called for a more measured and tempered approach to see how Commonwealth offices are handling it.
Yesterday, Governor Tim Kaine called for a special session of the General Session to be held on August 19th to specifically address the Melendez-Diaz decision. While Ken Cuccinelli won the "press war" in immediately calling for a special session, I believe that is all he really won, given the fact that he was very limited regarding the impacts of Melendez-Diaz to both the courts and law enforcement.
In Virginia, during a DWI most arresting agencies have their officers run the breath tests following an arrest. Fairfax County is different due to the high amount of arrests that occur, so it is more expedient to have staffers at the jail who run the tests and draw blood when necessary. (The blood draw capability by staff also prevents officers from going to hospitals.) While there was a sense, if you listened to Ken Cuccinelli, that the sky is falling due to this decision, I'll respectfully disagree, at least in regard to DWIs.
Thus far if you notice a substantial amount of the debate has focused on DWI arrests and little on drug cases because there are substantially more going through the court systems. The Georgia waiver that Cuccinelli discusses and which was held constitutional under Melendez-Diaz is a "notice-and-demand" waiver which would allow defendants to waive their rights to cross examine the tech, lab analyst or machine calibrator. While the waivier is constitutional, it really does not fix the problem that is faced "on the front lines" by our Commonwealth Attorneys and law enforcement and will bring us right back to square one where we already are. The problem that Ken Cuccinelli fails to grasp is that there are currently not enough analysts available to testify at the number of trials to which they will be subpoenaed.
The extreme language of Catherine Crabill is now being used to challenge other Republican candidates. Crabill made her remarks about resorting to the bullet box at a Tea Party. Another Republican candidate speaking at Tea Parties in Virginia has been the Republican nominee for Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, who had spoken at two Tea Party events on July 4, in Roanoke and Charlottesville.
Steve Shannon, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, has suddenly become very proactive in his campaigning, perhaps as a result of the recent hire of Mike Henry, one of the most experienced Virginia political operatives, as his campaign manager.
Today Shannon had a press conference call, and issued a press release, the contents of which are below the fold.
Republicans expand the tent with a more open-minded market philosophy. A building carrying the name of the Virginia Republican Second District Chairman and housing the campaign headquarters of a Republican candidate also shelters a boutique, classes for pole dancing in heels, and an escort service. That's "Progress for Your Family."
Carrying on the Virginia Beach tradition of Republicans ignoring the local ordinance restricting the display of campaign signs and joining Bob McDonnell and Ken Stolle in this principled protest of the rule of law, City Councilman Ron Villanueva has posted signs where he set up shop conveniently located in a building with what is likely a well outfitted call center (apparently outcall only, but that works). DO NOT SELECT THIS LINK IF YOU ARE AT WORK OR ON ANY CHILD'S COMPUTERApollo Productions, an online entertainment service with this bricks and mortar office, caters to the prurient interests of clients and the proximity allows a potentially symbiotic blending of services for the tenants. It has been a going concern since the 1980's according to one source. Apollo is on the same floor as the campaign office, allowing the association to be discreet if need be. The fact that the service offers both male and female entertainers will undoubtedly curry favor with the growing broad stance Republican following; the righteous right might not be so pleased, but certainly Bob McDonnell's relationship with Pat Robertson can facilitate some kind of absolution or other method of credible deniability.
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" - Captain Renault, Casablanca
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Republicans expand the tent with a more open-minded market philosophy. A building carrying the name of the Virginia Republican Second District Chairman and housing the campaign headquarters of a Republican candidate also shelters a boutique, classes for pole dancing in heels, and an escort service. That's "Progress for Your Family."