Romney visits Virginia again, this time to Chesterfield County to spread more falsehoods

According to the Richmond Times, GOP presidential candidate “fired up” over 3,000 attendees in Chesterfield County( a clear nod to the Times’ own political leanings).[1]

On Friday, Romney held another “rally” at Mobility Supercenter, a company in Chesterfield County that customizes cars and homes for wheelchair users. It could mark the first time the presidential candidate became aware that Americans in wheelchairs exist.

The trip to Chesterfield on Friday marks Romney’s 10^th visit to Virginia in the past month alone. Referring to the vice presidential debate that recently took place between vice president Joe Biden and his challenger counterpart, Paul Ryan, “There  was one person on stage who was thoughtful and respectful, steady and poised – the kind of person you want to turn to in a crisis…Paul Ryan.”[2]

It has been interesting to witness the reactions of Republican partisans to the vice presidential debate. While these individuals have been quick to linger on Mr. Biden’s facial expressions or “aggressiveness,” there has been relatively little discussion about the substance of the debate. That is, the actual policy issues that this presidential election is really about.

The reason no doubt has to do with the fact that the Romney ticket has been short on policy specifics[3], particularly regarding the most important piece of policy for most Americans, economic policy. Thus, the Romney campaign and supporters alike can do little but pick apart facial expressions and Joe Biden’s assertiveness because to delve into the policy sphere would quickly reveal the paucity of Romney’s own policy cabinet.

Of course, there are some Romney policy specifics, and they are an absolute affront to this country’s middle class and any hope for a future that is both bright and fair for a broad spectrum of Americans. 

It is truly amazing that a man who has likely never worked a hard day in his life has the support of so many Americans whose lives Romney will never be able to understand or relate to (i.e., middle and working class Americans). 

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[1] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/news/2012/oct/13/tdmain01-romney-fires-up-more-than-3000-in-chester-ar-2279575/

[2] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/news/2012/oct/13/tdmain01-romney-fires-up-more-than-3000-in-chester-ar-2279575/

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/us/politics/after-a-rocky-few-weeks-romney-shifts-strategy-to-policy-specifics.html?pagewanted=all

Tim Kaine & George Allen lay out economic policy positions in front of economic association

In front of the Virginia Economic Developers Association at the Hotel Roanoke on Thursday, former Virginia governors Tim Kaine and George Allen spelled out their economic plans for the country, drawing distinctions between their policy positions on energy and how to overcome the looming sequester.

Allen and Kaine appeared separately before the association to lay down their economic visions.

Allen took the usual position of defunding the middle and working classes while “protecting” national defense, remarking that he’d “start with what the House passed in May,”[1] which included $380 billion in cuts from social programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Allen also called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, citing the figure of $1 trillion in savings.

Tim Kaine, by contrast, repeated his call to end tax cuts for those with an annual income over $500,000, saying that the change would create $500 billion worth of added revenues over the next decade.

Kaine also resumed his enlightened position on alternative energy. “But if you think humans affect climate, then you do wrestle with the notion that we’ve got to do something about carbon, and the best thing we can do about carbon in my view is invest in low- and no-carbon energy.”[2]

Citing his across-the-aisle governing style, Mr. Kaine also talked about his time working with House Republicans to pass a higher education bond package that facilitated the creation of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

Neither of the candidate’s positions are new[3], nor is the relevancy of this election in Virginia. If Tim Kaine becomes Virginia’s next U.S. Senator, it will not only send a public figure that truly understands the needs of a broad spectrum of Americans, it will also help the Democratic Party retain control of the U.S. Senate.

So if you’re concerned about public health, the middle class, the environment, the existence of the social safety net, and appropriate legislative compromise, then Tim Kaine is your guy. 

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[1] http://blogs.roanoke.com/politics/2012/10/11/allen-kaine-detail-dueling-economic-development-philosophies-at-hotel-roanoke/

[2] http://blogs.roanoke.com/politics/2012/10/11/allen-kaine-detail-dueling-economic-development-philosophies-at-hotel-roanoke/

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-first-televised-prime-time-debate-kaine-and-allen-heighten-stakes-for-pivotal-senate-race/2012/10/08/fafa5ce0-11a5-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html

The Mainstream Media & its Aversion to Substance

It is a sign of how far the mainstream media has shifted away from the substance of contemporary political debates to the “style” when commentators for The Washington Post bemoan this very phenomenon.[1] That is, a commentator for one of America’s most well known news outlets is essentially saying, “we don’t focus on political substance as much as we should.”

And indeed, they don’t. After the vice presidential debate, one of the most talked about aspects was “Joe Biden’s smirk” (WTF!?).[2] Yes, his smirk, a smirk that apparently sent chills down the spins of Romney partisans as much as it warmed the hearts of the Democratic Party faithful.

Perhaps the focus on Mr. Biden’s smirk or Paul Ryan’s constant eye-popping moments wouldn’t be so outrageous if the commentary following the debate focused more on the actual substance of what was said.

All in all, however, it seemed as though both mainstream and online news outlets were content with exploring the expressions of the different candidates and how these could shape the future of the presidential election.

Here’s a wakeup call to these news outlets: policy matters! Policy matters so much that the Romney ticket’s aversion to spelling out its own tax-cutting policy specifics should send up a huge red flag for anyone in the country who is thinking about voting. It should also be the topic of discussion among every decent news outlet in America.

To say you’re going to cut marginal tax rates by 20 percent while significantly reducing our country’s debt is a mighty bold claim. It is even bolder when there is no plan describing how this mighty feat will be accomplished. It should be the responsibility of every news outlet across the country to dig deeper for these answers.

But for everyone but the Romney partisans, it’s clear how this economic miracle will be pulled off, by further eroding the economic position of America’s middle class, a class of American’s that Romney apparently thinks are largely government subsidized freeloaders.[3]

Thus, in their aversion to substance, the mainstream news outlets in particular are assisting a presidential candidate who not only holds egregious policy positions, he also holds almost half of America as outside of his sphere of concern.

Here’s to a brave new world, indeed.

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[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-our-sickly-sweet-debates/2012/10/12/3e7cf85c-1493-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html

[2] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/13/in-vice-presidential-debate-joe-biden-perfects-art-of-the-smirk.html

[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gvY2wqI7M

College debate at University of Richmond sparks discussion on energy and global warming

At a presidential campaign debate at the University of Richmond in the UR School of Law building on Wednesday, global warming and energy resources became two dominant issues for representatives of President Barack Obama’s campaign and his challenger, Mitt Romney.

Campaign representative for President Obama, Kenneth Berlin, said President Obama is encouraging a move towards a “clean energy economy” by providing federal financial support. Or as conservatives like to call, government subsidies.[1]

Mitt Romney’s campaign representative at the campaign debate, Jeffrey Holmstead, noted that the Obama administration has reduced the production of oil and natural gas on public lands as well as created a more difficult entrepreneurial environment for coal-burning power plants to survive.[2] All of these claims are of course true and precisely the point.

Said Holmstead, “If you protect the environment in the wrong way, you can have a tremendous impact on jobs.”[3]

First of all, this is clearly where liberals and progressives diverge decisively with conservatives. Reducing the use of fossil fuels as sources of power, especially coal[4], is precisely protecting the environment in the “right way.” The world cannot simply conserve its way or advance enough technological breakthroughs at present to protect the environment from further harm.

Furthermore, the conservative viewpoint regarding jobs versus the environment is as short-sighted as it is narrow. The displacement of the fossil fuel industry will be counterbalanced by the rise of the clean energy sector, producing more jobs than the fossil fuel industry. Thus, the whole jobs argument forwarded by conservatives is moot. And to add the cherry on top of the cake, the jobs will actually advance a better world!

Lastly, even if reducing America’s carbon footprint in the wake of China’s and India’s carbon clouds won’t do much good, do two wrongs make a right, especially when America has the technology and popular will to make the clean energy transition?

America once saw itself as a leader and far-sighted enough to be willing to make sacrifices in the present to reap substantial benefits in the future. Essentially, this is what President Obama represents, only a lot less pain in the present with just as much reward in the future.   

President Obama understands America needs to make changes in the present to have a future worth speaking of. I can only hope most Americans feel the same this November.

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[1] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/11/tdmet02-representatives-for-obama-romney-debate-en-ar-2273859/

[2] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/11/tdmet02-representatives-for-obama-romney-debate-en-ar-2273859/

[3] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/11/tdmet02-representatives-for-obama-romney-debate-en-ar-2273859/

[4] http://www.opednews.com/articles/Demise-Of-The-Coal-Industr-by-Jack-Swint-120816-260.html

In typical cynical fashion, new Crossroads GPS ad attempts to tie Tim Kaine to sequester

As if George Allen’s own deceptive TV ads weren’t enough, U.S. Senate candidate for Virginia Tim Kaine now has to undergo another onslaught from the infamously low-balling conservative group Crossroads GPS.[1]

In a new campaign ad being put out by Crossroads GPS, the TV spots focuses on Tim Kaine’s support for the so-called sequester that was supposed to bring both sides of Congress together to strike a long-term budget deal.

The ad says the following: “Tim Kaine supported the Washington budget deal, a deal that could destroy over 500,000 jobs in the defense industry.”[2]

Of course, Tim Kaine wasn’t alone in supporting the sequester. Virginia’s own conservative knight, Bob McDonnell, did as well alongside nearly every Republican leader. Therefore, if one follows the argument put forward by Crossroads, everyone of the Republican leaders who voted for sequester also voted to “destroy over 500,000 jobs in the defense industry.”

Furthermore, the credibility of Crossroads is virtually nil. Here is a “Super PAC” that has shown time and again that it isn’t above telling lies to achieve political victory.[3]  

As spokeswoman for Tim Kaine said, however, “Tim Kaine no more ‘got us here’ than a firefighter arriving to put out a blaze caused a fire.” An apt metaphor, indeed.

Kaine has promoted his candidacy on the promise that he’ll be a candidate that isn’t afraid ‘to reach across the aisle’ to reach a deal that furthers the interests of our country, even if it means compromising from time to time. In other words, Tim Kaine is a firefighter that, if elected, will help put out the flames of partisanship that have thoroughly engulfed the current body of congress.

For all of the partisanship that has overtaken congress, political figures like Tim Kaine are the kind of individuals that can restore the balance that has been lost . I can’t say the same about George Allen.

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[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/crossroads-hits-tim-kaine-again-on-defense-cuts/2012/10/09/bdd6a970-121f-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_blog.html

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/crossroads-hits-tim-kaine-again-on-defense-cuts/2012/10/09/bdd6a970-121f-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_blog.html

[3] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/08/11711/crossroads-gps-spins-lies-north-dakota-senate-race

George Allen’s new campaign ads falsely labels Tim Kaine an opponent of coal (unfortunately)

After a brief step away from George Allen’s campaign strategy of tying U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine to President Obama and his supposedly failed policies, the Allen campaign has renewed its “linking strategy” with two new ads released in Southwest Virginia labeling Kaine an opponent of the coal industry.[1]

In the two new campaign ads launched by the Allen campaign, the voices of Jay and Elaine Swiney, members of a fourth generation coal mining family, can be heard blaming the Obama administration for the current decline of the coal industry in the U.S. said Jay Swiney, “Our current administration in Washington has put a lot of regulations on the coal industry.”[2]

Indeed, what does the government usually do when a killer is on the loose? It’s penalizes the individual or group of individuals to make sure that the actions don’t occur again.

In the case of the coal industry, a repeat offender of negatively affecting America’s health, the government has applied a slap on the wrist of the coal industry decade after air-pollution filled decade. That is, until President Obama came into office, or at least that is the narrative that is being told by Republicans.

The irony of President Obama’s regulations for carbon dioxide emissions is that they apply to new, “non-peaking” natural gas power plants and coal-fired power plants that may be built sometime down the road.[3]  Thus, the claim that President Obama is costing Americans jobs is simply untrue.

An even further irony is Tim Kaine’s own position on coal. As Kaine pointed out, “I support coal as part of a comprehensive energy approach that utilizes all our domestic energy resources to propel our economy and become more energy independent.”[4] Policy positions don’t get much clearer than that.

But the Allen campaign has used deception throughout this campaign, so why stop now?

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[1] http://politics.blogs.timesdispatch.com/2012/10/09/allen-launches-coal-focused-ads-swva/

[2] http://politics.blogs.timesdispatch.com/2012/10/09/allen-launches-coal-focused-ads-swva/

[3] http://www.forbes.com/sites/powerlunch/2012/08/31/president-obamas-alleged-war-on-coal-climate-change-edition/

[4] http://politics.blogs.timesdispatch.com/2012/10/09/allen-launches-coal-focused-ads-swva/

VA Democratic Central Committee votes to strike down eminent-domain amendment

The Democratic Party of Virginia’s State Central Committee recently voted to strike down an eminent-domain amendment that passed on a bipartisan vote in both the state Senate and the House of Delegates.[1]

The amendment will be presented to Virginia’s voters on the Nov. 6 ballot and if passed, the amendment would add a Virginia law to the Virginia Constitution on property rights protection, entitling landowners whose property is “seized” to compensation from the government for an amount equivalent to at least as much as the worth of the property.

In defense of its vote, the Democratic central committee argued that the amendment would “add to the complexity and expense of governmental entities seeking to utilize eminent domain for the benefit of taxpayers, even when property is taken for unquestioned public purposes.”[2]

With all due respect to the Democratic central committee, the vote to reject the eminent-domain amendment is an asinine move that makes little political or practical sense.

First, if Virginia’s Democratic voters favor the amendment by a 20-point margin, “the people” have clearly spoken in favor of the eminent-domain measure. Thus, the state Democratic Party should support the measure too.

Secondly, I have to agree with my conservative friends: the amendment simply makes sense. If private property is allowed to be seized by the government, especially for “unquestioned public purposes,” the very least the government can do is grant compensation equivalent to the value of the property. If there is extra “complexity” involved, it is the price that has to be paid to minimally uphold the principles of our nation (i.e. no unreasonable seizure of private property[3]).

At the very least, the Democratic Party of Virginia’s State Central Committee should recast a symbolic “yes” vote to approve the amendment. Otherwise, the committee stands in danger of being an irrelevant institution that does not appear to represent the desire of its Democratic Party constituents.

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[1] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/7/virginia-democratic-panel-bucks-voters-on-amendmen/

[2] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/7/virginia-democratic-panel-bucks-voters-on-amendmen/

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution