Sunday, September 30, 2012

President Obama and Mitt Romney hammer away at campaign messages in VA on Wednesday


In their “dueling” rallies held on Wednesday in Virginia, President Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney did their best to convince their audiences that each should be in the White House a year from now.

Barack Obama visited Virginia Beach, a central location for the military in Virginia, while Romney campaigned in Fairfax County, speaking to veterans.

At his rally in Virginia Beach, President Obama emphasized America’s gradual progress towards pre-recession economic security. President Obama stated, “We’re not where we need to be, not yet. We’ve got a lot more folks who have to get back to work, we’ve got a lot more work to do to make the middle class secure again.”[1]

In what will no doubt be a campaign theme for the Obama administration throughout the remainder of the campaign season, President Obama also portrayed Romney as out of touch and in favor of policies that have been tried before and failed.

For his part, Romney promised to sustain the strength of the U.S. military. Romney noted that “The idea of cutting our military commitment by a trillion dollars over this decade is unthinkable and devastating. And when I become president of the United States, we will stop it.”[2]

Unfortunately, someone should inform Mr. Romney that the president alone cannot stop the looming sequestration. And given Romney’s less-than-popular standing even with Republican members of Congress[3], it’s highly doubtful that Romney would be able to mend enough fences to kill the sequestration by his influence alone.

Nonetheless, it’s refreshing to know that Mitt Romney will not attempt to put more of our country’s workers onto the streets to “cut costs.” Instead, Romney appears more than willing to put just about everyone else in the country one step closer to falling through the social safety net that was largely constructed after the Great Depression of 1929 to help individuals recovers from circumstances that could not and cannot be foreseen.[4]

Herein lies a fundamental difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney: the former seeks to learn from history while the latter seeks to disregard and change it to his own benefit.
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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Energy Suppliers and Their Brutal Violations of Human Rights: It’s Time to Wake Up


As the Nigerian protesters’ case against Shell[1] and the brutal treatment of peaceful protesters in Texas via TransCanada’s encouragement[2] highlight all too well, the planet’s biggest energy providers are more than willing to work outside of the law to meet their interests. In Nigeria, peaceful protesters were subjected to violence by the Nigerian government with the alleged encouragement of Royal Dutch Shell PLC. With the eyes of the free world watching in Texas, the police response to peaceful protesters allegedly encouraged by TransCanada was less brutal but no less audacious.

In the latter case, two protesters who handcuffed themselves together on TransCanada’s construction equipment “were subjected to choke holds, stress positions in which their free arms were handcuffed, contorted, and then pepper sprayed, burning their skin. They were then tased…”[3] In Nigeria, where much of the world has turned their attention away from, one can only imagine the heightened brutality that peaceful protesters suffered.

The message these companies, and their respective puppet governments, are sending is clear: opposition of any kind will be severely punished. And the weak response by Americans and the international community to these violations of human rights and, in the case of America, some of our basic underlying principles as a country seems to confirm the fact that engaged environmental advocates are seen more as individuals to blame for the violence perpetrated against them, and not the victims of ruthless business and government practices.

Or maybe Americans and the international community simply do not care about issues of human rights violations anymore unless they are on a massive or extremely local scale. The irony of our interconnected world is that our proximity to one another in terms of information and news has forged a disconnect among many here in the United States, in particular. That is, the constant news stories about human rights violations across the world, and here in our own country, has appeared to create a cognitive screen that individuals use to tune out the worst aspects of our contemporary world.  After all, who wants to be bothered with such serious issues like human rights when our favorite football teams will be playing this weekend?

The hard fact is that we are all in this ship together, fellow Americans and fellow citizens of the world alike. We cannot ignore the abuse of rights in one area of the world or one state in our country without also implicitly condoning these types of abuses. It’s not what most people want to hear on a Saturday morning but in the words of Samuel  L. Jackson, it’s time to wake the f*%k up.[4] One of the smallest steps we can take to do that is to vote this November for President Obama.
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Wayne Powell campaign responds to Cantor criticism: simple oversights happen


On Wednesday, the Democratic candidate for the 7th U.S. House district, Wayne Powell, responded to Eric Cantor’s charges that the former was attempting “to keep the voters in the dark regarding his personal finances.”[1]

Cantor campaign officials criticized Wayne Powell’s failure to file his financial disclosure statement with the clerk of the U.S. House. The Cantor campaign gave reference to a fundraising report turned in to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showing Powell raised $9,114.01 for the period ending Sept. 30, 2011.

Powell’s campaign responded by saying that the failure to file was a “simple oversight by a fresh new candidate.” The form was filed this week.

While Powell’s failure to file his financial disclosure statement cannot be excused, not every political candidate can raise nearly $6.5 million[2] to cover some of the costs associated with running a political campaign. That is, meeting all of the tasks and requirements of a political campaign on a shoe-string budget isn’t easy.

The Cantor campaign’s criticism of Powell over his financial disclosure also demonstrates Cantor’s attempts to divert discussions away from the issues themselves, like the economy, insider trading, and health care reform.

However, both candidates will debate one another next Monday on economic issues sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. It will be Cantor’s first general election debate since 2002.[3] The debate will also give Powell a great opportunity to show the 7th District that he is a better candidate, across the board.

Political power has rested in Cantor’s hands unopposed for too long, and with his “leadership” our country was almost brought to an economic disaster[4]. Unlike Cantor, Powell appears to be an individual who is willing to put the country above personal political ambition and partisan politics.
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Friday, September 28, 2012

Vice President Biden speaks in Chesterfield, drawing contrasts with Mitt Romney


The always entertaining Vice President Joe Biden addressed supporters in Chesterfield County on Tuesday at the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds[1] as part of the Obama administration’s ongoing effort to stem the influence of Mitt Romney in this predominantly Republican area.

Biden “hammered” away at a message that emphasized the importance of America’s middle class, saying that “if the 47 percent doesn’t make it, the country doesn’t make it.”

Biden unsurprisingly targeted the recent comments made by Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser in Florida. In the video that was released by Mother Jones,[2] Romney chides the “47 percent” of Americans who pay no federal income tax, claiming that this 47 percent view themselves as “victims.”

Biden asked, “When he [Mitt Romney] said it’s not my job to worry about these people – well, whose job is it?”

Biden went on to contrast his and President Obama’s views about America’s social safety net relative to Mitt Romney’s. The Vice President said he doesn’t think that access to Medicare, child-care tax credits, and Social Security creates a “culture of dependency.”

As a further political move to shift swayable voters away from the Romney camp, Biden told the crowd in Chesterfield that the current GOP is not “your father’s Republican Party.”

Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that Republicans believed in the legitimacy of science, the importance of protecting America’s social safety net, as well as the importance of protecting the environment, even if it was a burdensome endeavor at times.[3]

The contemporary GOP however, spearheaded by Mitt Romney, appears indifferent to these issues at best. At worst, influential members of the GOP seem more than willing to dismantle portions of America’s social safety net, environmental protections, and even some of our country’s most prolific public scientific institutions.[4]

Whatever the reasons may be, today’s GOP has consistently made political moves that have alienated not insignificant segments of its base: women, the elderly, the working class, and others.

Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are a lot of things to a lot of people. But one thing Joe Biden, in particular, genuinely seems to be is a man who cares about Americans and America’s future. I cannot say the same for Mr. Romney.
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Thursday, September 27, 2012

McDonnell fundraises in northern VA: should elected officials be able to fundraise in office?


Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, attended a fundraiser Tuesday evening in northern Virginia to assist Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) raise money for his reelection bid.[1] Wolf has been called the “dean” of Virginia’s congressional delegation, first elected to Congress in 1980.

Wolf is competing against former federal prosecutor, Kristin Cabral (D). 

While McDonnell’s fundraising trip to northern Virginia for a fellow public representative may be business-as-usual, it should stop in favor of actual governance on the part of elected officials. That is, political representatives of every political party should not be allowed to fundraise for other elected officials while in office.

The point of electing an individual for public office is, of course, for that individual to “represent” his or her given constituency. However, it’s difficult to represent anything but the party’s interests when elected officials take time off of their public duties to fundraise for a fellow party member.[2]

It isn’t impractical in the least to suggest that elected officials pay more attention to their constituencies than their party machine and the individuals who constitute it.

Especially for political figures like McDonnell who opine about “government waste” at every turn, it’s particularly bothersome that these individuals would feed off the taxpayer’s dime to raise money for another political candidate.

Business-as-usual, in this case, is not what’s right for Virginians. Focusing on issues pertinent to bettering our state is what governors are hired for, not to fill the coffers of other politicians.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Richmond City Council votes to forcibly secure easements for land on Hull St. Road


Whenever easement cases arise, the opposition between the individual and society is put into sharp focus. The Richmond City Council delayed a vote on Monday[1] to forcibly secure easements for land on Hull Street Road.

According to officials for the city of Richmond, the easements are necessary to begin a $1.7 million federally funded project to reconfigure Hey Road, Hull Street Road, and Derwent Road. The latter of the two will be realigned to make traffic signal upgrades and improve sight lines.[2]

The individuals impeding the Richmond City Council’s plans for road improvements are Aaron and Lena Haas, owners of the properties located at 6001 and 6007 Hull Street Road.

According to Richmond City’s capital projects administrator, Lamont Benjamin, “We [the city of Richmond] couldn’t come to an agreement about the compensation for the easements.”[3]

If and when the city council approves the ordinance, however, compensation for the easements will be determined by a judge.

It is cases like Haas’ that brings up the important classical-liberal question of what kind of balance should be struck between respect for individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property and the rights of society.

In the case of the road construction around Haas’ house, a dangerous intersection is being federally funded to be reconstructed. However, doing so means that Haas’ will have to involuntarily cede some of the rights to his property.

Can the government simply declare a piece of property integral to its plans and forcibly take it?
Of course, one example doesn’t make a trend. The U.S. is an open nation that pushes and pulls back and forth against differing ideas.

Should each forcible easement case be decided on a case-by-case basis, or should one or the other always win (i.e. society or the individual)?
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

First Richmond “SlutWalk” brings out close to 200 participants to raise sexual assault awareness


On Saturday, over 170 individuals participated in Richmond, Virginia’s first “SlutWalk,” an international rallying event that seeks to raise awareness over the problem of blaming sexual assault victims.[1]

The first SlutWalk took place in Toronto in April 2011 and has since spread. According to sources, the “SlutWalk” was created after a constable in Toronto informed students that in order to prevent being sexually assaulted, they should “avoid dressing like sluts.”[2]

If we continue with this line of reasoning, men shouldn’t grow mustaches or drive white vans either unless they want to be considered pedophiles.

Those who joined the Richmond SlutWalk included men, children, babies in strollers, women, and Virginia Commonwealth University students who wore hijab headscarves.

The events message was simple: “My clothes are not an invitation.”[3]

For all of the progress that America and the world have made on the issue of gender equality, how the United States in particular deals with sexual assault victims reveals a vestige of an outdated belief system that has yet to be superseded.

All too often, when women are the victims of sexual assault, women are implicitly or explicitly blamed in some ways for “inviting” this situation, whether through body language, dress, or spoken words. The theory is that if a woman acts or dresses promiscuously, she must want to have sex or be physically touched. Of course, one thing does not necessarily lead to another nor is there an objective definition of what “dressing promiscuously” looks like.

As with so much else in our society, we tend to make conclusions based off of generalized beliefs, like women who dress this way or that are to blame for being sexually assaulted, instead of taking each instance on a case-by-case basis.

While Americans preach the ideals of the “land of the free and home of the brave,” the victimization myths that the SlutWalk seeks to dispel are the kind of beliefs that can leave individuals (women in particular) feeling constrained in the choices they are able to make.

There is a simple solution to blaming women outright, however: instead of judging out-of-hand, understand the facts of each sexual assault case before making any conclusions about who’s to blame.
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Monday, September 24, 2012

Virginia AG Cuccinelli confirms that Virgil Goode qualifies for VA presidential ballot


On Friday, Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, ruled that presidential candidate Virgil Goode had enough valid signatures to qualify for the commonwealth’s presidential ballot. Goode is running as the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate this November.[1]

Over the course of Goode’s 36 years in public office, Goode has spanned the political spectrum, once being a Democrat, an independent, and a Republican[2]. Goode’s base consists primarily of conservatives.
Goode is running on a platform of balancing our nation’s budget faster than Mitt Romney plans to and stopping immigration until America’s unemployment rate comes to 5%.

Thus, there has been concern inside Mitt Romney’s campaign that Goode could “drain” otherwise certain votes away from the former governor of Massachusetts. However, it is not at all clear that Goode will receive more than 1% of Virginia’s votes, leaving Romney plenty of room to win the popular vote in Virginia.[3]  

What should be just as worrisome to the Romney camp are the hits that Goode will supply Romney’s campaign from the political right, potentially alienating other conservative voters throughout the country from Romney.

During the Republican Party primaries, Mitt Romney acquiesced to a number of far-right political positions[4] that he had previously rejected. But now that the general election is underway, Romney has attempted to move closer to the political middle in order to win over independent voters. Goode’s criticism from the political right could force Romney to once again shift to the right.

If Romney loses the general election, or Virginia for that matter, he has only himself to blame for the incredible political mistakes that have been made so far during his campaign. Virgil Goode is the least of Romney’s worries because Romney’s own worst enemy is himself.
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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Kaine and Allen square off in third debate: Kaine comes out the clear winner


In their third head-to-head debate on Thursday at the Capital One Conference Center in McLean, former Virginia Governor’s Tim Kaine and George Allen discussed some of our country’s most pressing issues, trying to convince Virginia’s voters why they deserve to be elected to the U.S. Senate[1].

While the debate was civil, policy specifics were not as forthcoming as one would have hoped, especially for George Allen.

Tim Kaine did show however, more so than his political opponent, a willingness to step outside of the name calling and partisanship that has brought congress to a standstill. In response to an attack by Allen, Kaine responded, “We can debate policies, but that’s the kind of name calling we’ve seen too much in Washington, and what’s wrong with Washington is not going to be fixed by more of that.”[2]

Indeed, George Allen’s political career has been much less about working “across the aisle” or practicing civility than using his public pulpit to belittle Democratic Party candidates and, yes, their staffers as well.[3]

Thus, George Allen’s is the kind of political record that makes it difficult to imagine that, if elected to the U.S. Senate, he would attempt to compromise with the Democratic Party, thereby adding to the gridlock that has all but alienated the American people towards their federal legislature.[4]

Regardless of what George Allen claims, his derogatory and negative comments in the past have defined who he is and how other members of congress perceive him. Allen is a partisan bull-dog and a non-pragmatic politician to boot (e.g. balanced budget amendment!).[5]

If Virginians are serious about ending the gridlock in the U.S. Congress, they’ll vote for Tim Kaine to be our next U.S. Senator.
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Saturday, September 22, 2012

New poll shows Kaine ahead for senate seat but results should be taken with a grain of salt


In a stunning Quinnipiac University-New York Times-CBS News poll released on Wednesday, U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine came out 7 percentage points ahead of his Republican competitor, George Allen.[1]

What has been a tight contest for the U.S. Senate seat in Virginia for the past year[2] seemingly broke open in favor of former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, if the poll’s results are to be taken at face value.

However, given the sudden surge ahead by Kaine and the number of Democrats sampled in the polls, the results should be taken with a grain of salt.

For instance, in the Quinnipiac poll, 35% of those involved identified themselves as Democrats while only 24% identified themselves as Republicans. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, this range in political party identification assumes a turnout advantage for the Democratic Party greater than what exit polls from 2008 show.[3]

Just last week, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showed Tim Kaine and George Allen tied at 46% for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat.[4]

Therefore, while it would be nice to conclude that Tim Kaine has all but won his contest, assuming such a result could lead to a sense of complacency on the part of the Kaine faithful and a consequent slowing down of grassroots participation. Kaine’s already got the election in the bag, right?

Until the last vote has been cast on Nov. 6, no results should be taken for granted, especially with so much at stake in the upcoming elections, not least of which the contest between Tim Kaine and George Allen.
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Friday, September 21, 2012

President Obama: Making the Environmentally Friendly List Less than 4 Years In


Less than four years into his presidency, 12 “leading environmental groups” were asked to rank the presidents they “felt did the most for the environment,” and President Obama ranked fourth[1] behind “Teddy” Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter. Not bad for a first term. But even more impressive is the congressional context within with President Obama progressed environmentally progressive legislation.

Sierra Club’s Michael Brune said it best, “If you look at Clinton or Carter or Nixon – every single president was able to sign legislation that Congress passed…Obama doesn’t have that. He has to do it in the face of this head wind from Congress.” Mighty head winds, indeed!

20 or 30 years down the road, it’s quite possible that President Obama could be named the second most environmentally progressive president in our country’s history, behind the standard-bearer, Teddy Roosevelt. And President Obama still has one term left!

I could go through the laundry list of environmental policies that President Obama has established[2] and approved, but I’m assuming you already know many of them.

The ultimate point is that through the immense political barriers that President Obama has faced in his time as president, he always remained true to his vision of a better, healthier, environment. It took a lot of political courage to make some of the moves that President Obama did (e.g. delaying the Keystone XL pipeline).

For all of the qualms some within the liberal and environmental communities have with President Obama’s environmental policies, no one can reasonably deny that President Obama has been a net gain for human and environmental health. That’s why he deserves our support on November 6th. He won’t always go in the direction we’d like him to on the environment, but one misstep for President Obama is equivalent to ten for Willard Romney.

Unlike the latter, I’m confident that President Obama actually does care about whether or not Americans are breathing healthy air and that America’s public lands are being protected for future generations, and so on.
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Paul Ryan kicks off 2-day tour of Virginia with usual public swipes at President Obama


The vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party, Paul Ryan, started his two-day tour of Virginia on Tuesday in an effort to remind Virginia’s voters why President Obama should be a one-term president.

Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke before a crowd of nearly 1,700 enthusiastic conservatives at Christopher Newport University.[1]

Ryan took the usual public swipes at President Obama, pointing to the “stagnant” U.S. economy and the president’s supposedly weak response to the violence directed at the U.S. in the Middle East.

With regards to the economy, however, President Obama inherited a hemorrhaging economic crisis from the previous president, the worst since the Great Depression. Job losses were at 800,000 a month when President Obama stepped into the White House and the Dow Industrial Average was below 7,000.[2]

Unless Ryan chooses to tell another lie and pin these figures on President Obama, the latter has actually helped  CREATE 4.5 million private-sector jobs in the past 29 months.[3] In other words, President Obama has done a great job playing the horrible hand he was dealt by George W. Bush.

On foreign policy, the Romney ticket has attempted to paint President Obama as weak and “leading from behind.” This is a bold strategy for Team Romney considering President Obama’s many foreign policy successes: the killing of Osama bin Laden and senior Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al Awlaki, the mobilization of an international coalition to safeguard pro-democracy Libyan demonstrators, reduced the number of Russian and U.S. nuclear missile launchers by half, and the list could go on.[4]

And Mitt Romney’s foreign policy credentials? A number of blunders ill-suited for the leader of the free world.[5]

Most strikingly, Ryan was, as usual, unspecific about Team Romney’s own policy solutions. Romney and Ryan have been largely content with attacking President Obama on every policy front while offering very little 
in the way of real solutions that Americans can compare.

Why would anyone elect a ticket that has few answers to our country’s most pressing problems?
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