Associated Press finds four year high in food and drink costs at Virginia’s Executive Mansion

Another “ethical lapse” may be looming over Virginia’s embattled governor, Bob McDonnell, after a recent Associated Press analysis of grocery costs at Virginia’s Executive Mansion revealed the highest costs in four years between late 2011 and early 2012. How’s that for a supposedly fiscally responsible elected representative?!

The Associated Press concluded that Gov. Bob McDonnell and his family cost the taxpayers of Virginia $102,000 for FY2012 (the 12 months that ended June 30) on food and drink. Of the $102,000, half was spent between December 2011 and March 2012. That is, within a four month span, Virginia’s governor and his family consumed $61,000 worth of food and drink. Correct me if I’m wrong but $61,000 seems a bit excessive over the course of a year, let alone a four month period of time.

On top of this additional piece of evidence that Bob McDonnell is a hypocrite and a liar is the lingering story/case of McDonnell’s former Executive Mansion chef, Todd Schneider. Schneider was fired in March 2012 “as Virginia State Police opened an investigation that continues into kitchen operations at the mansion.”

The polite political rhetoric and be-careful-not-to-step-on-anyone’s-toes speak, in the case of McDonnell, needs to end. It has become increasingly clear, without much shadow of a doubt, that McDonnell and the ‘First Family’ have acted, on a number of different occasions, outside of the best interests of the people of Virginia.

In the example of the Associated Press food and drink price tag analysis, there simply is no other explanation other than the governor and his family took gross advantage of the privileges afforded to a sitting Virginia governor. It seems like McDonnell considers his post as governor a throw-away stepping stone to a greater political paradise in the U.S. Senate or even the White House!

No wonder McDonnell wanted to overturn the one-term limit for governors of Virginia. How else will McDonnell and family afford to throw lavish parties with all-you-can-eat food and drink?

Another memory lapse revealed by Cuccinelli on Friday, gift total from Star Scientific doubles

Would you forget if a friend or donor paid for a charter flight to carry you off to a speaking engagement not more than 3 years ago? If so, you and Ken Cuccinelli have something in common, only the latter has to legally report these ‘gifts’.

In failing to report this, and a number of other so-called gifts, Cuccinelli has raised the bar of suspicion around himself and beleaguered Star Scientific CEO, Jonnie Williams Sr.

Cuccinelli is under fire due to a lawsuit that dietary supplement manufacturer, Star Scientific, brought against the state of Virginia. So far so good, right? The only problem for Cuccinelli is that he is and was the state’s top attorney who would be defending the state against a company he owned stock in.  

According to Cuccinelli on Friday, a total of three trips and two vacations over the past 5 years were “inadvertent omissions” that were revised in his disclosure statements when they were ‘rediscovered’. Even without these new “omissions,” Cuccinelli’s original financial disclosures showed that Williams’ had given Cuccinelli $13,000 worth of gifts and travel. That figure is double now.

Here’s a list of Cuccinelli’s forgotten bro-mance gifts:

– A $628 trip from Jonnie Williams to and from New York City for a Jewish community center meeting in 2009

– A $7,751 charter flight from Alpha Natural Resources in 2010 to take Cuccinelli and his parents to a Virginia Mining Association meeting in Southwest Virginia. Cuccinelli was a speaker at that meeting, which he described as the association’s annual mine land reclamation awards.

– A 2010 Thanksgiving stay at Jonnie Williams’ Smith Mountain Lake lakehouse for Cuccinelli and his family, plus dinner that Williams had delivered. Valued at $1,500.

– In 2012, transportation to and from a rally by the Federation of American Coal, Energy and Security, valued at $795.

– In 2012, the Cuccinelli family also spent most of a week at Williams’ lake house for a summer family vacation, valued at $3,000

– In 2011, Cuccinelli revised his report to show that a $6,711 box of food supplements came from Star Scientific, not from Williams.

Whoops!

Regardless of Cuccinelli’s explanation/excuse, Cuccinelli either lied to the people of Virginia or his competency is in question, or both. Either Cuccinelli knowingly failed to reveal these ‘gifts’ in his original financial disclosure statements or his ‘lapse’ in memory is a severely concerning factor for an individual running for Virginia’s highest executive office position. 

McAuliffe announces plan for greater transparency in Virginia’s government amid Star scandal

On Thursday, Democratic Party candidate for Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe, said he’ll ban gifts of $100 or more to a governor or his/her family. McAuliffe of course made the statement as the scandal surrounding Star Scientifics’ CEO Jonnie Williams Sr. continues to shroud Republicans Bob McDonnell and McAuliffe’s opponent in the gubernatorial run, Ken Cuccinelli, in an ever more uncomfortable fog of ethical wrongdoing and even illegality.

McAuliffe’s statement is a political no-brainer, a way of separating himself from his Republican opponent and highlighting the questionable relationship between Ken Cuccinelli and Jonnie Williams Sr.

McAuliffe commented, “Virginia taxpayers deserve to know that their elected officials are representing the Commonwealth first,” while also announcing a plan that will increase transparency in Virginia’s government.

But as Blue Virginia’s Lowell Feld noted, McAuliffe’s victory towards the Governor’s Mansion won’t be the cake-walk that it would be if a good deal of Virginians were sane enough to see how off his rocker Cuccinelli really is. Many Virginians seem more than willing to bypass the loony side of Cuccinelli for what they perceive as his more mainstream conservative policy platform.

As long as the election for governor continues, Virginians aligned with McAuliffe shouldn’t pat one another on the back. The fat lady is very much still in the building (can you imagine a Democratic candidate for Virginia governor getting away with AC/DC’s “T.N.T.” as part of their campaign ad?!). 

Goodlatte to ignorant masses: report on consulate attack in Benghazi not politically motivated

The vast amount of what political representatives in the U.S. Congress do is politically motivated. This may sound like a common-sense statement, but Virginia’s very own Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Roanoke County) would like his constituents and Americans in general to believe otherwise.

According to Goodlatte, House Judiciary Committee chairman, ““As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, I will continue to investigate this terrorist attack and provide the American people and the families of the victims with the answers they deserve and demand that the Administration hold accountable with appropriate disciplinary actions those who made these poor and costly decisions.” 

Goodlatte’s comments come after the House Republican Conference released its first report on the September 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. But before you conclude that the report is another political stunt being thrown around by the party of shamelessness (i.e., the GOP), Goodlatte  doesn’t want “to make political hay for partisan purposes.” Good, now I can rest assured that no political hay will be made for political ends.

Goodlatte’s statement is so audacious, it almost tops many notable Del. Robert Marshall (Prince William) or Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli statements in absurdity (but not quite).  

Of course the Republican Party is using the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as a political issue, otherwise they would be focused on another incident that caused even more deaths in this country, the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Yeah, the Newtown shootings were kind of a big deal that has been all but forgotten by many in the Republican Party, at least relative to the consulate attack in Benghazi.

Or was the shooting incident in Newtown, Connecticut a federal government conspiracy as well? We can only wonder…

How did it come to pass that elected representatives (whether Democrat or Republican, but overwhelmingly the latter) can get away with making some of the most insulting and audacious statements imaginable, and oftentimes without so much as a shrug from the vast majority of Americans? And who keeps voting these individuals into office?!

For all of the lip-service paid to the Founding Fathers by conservative politicians in particular like Bob Goodlatte, it’s not unreasonable to argue that the Founding Fathers would be aghast at the lucid hypocrisy, unethical behavior, greed, hate, anger, fear, and stupidity demonstrated by many members of the Republican Party in our own time. When they created our republic, they did so hoping that America’s elected representatives would be a virtuous lot. But my-oh my, how that apple has fallen far from the proverbial tree. 

Cuccinelli’s plan to pressure McAuliffe to release tax returns could backfire on the VA AG

If we believe the Republican Party narrative (which we, of course, shouldn’t), Democrats (i.e. socialists) aren’t very good at the whole money-making game that we call capitalism. Well, don’t tell Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia, Terry McAuliffe. On Tuesday, McAuliffe released abridged tax returns for 2009, 2010, and 2011. In 2011, McAuliffe made a respectable $8.2 million, including close to $1.9 million in capital gains income.

Since Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli released close to a decade’s worth of tax returns last week, his campaign  has heaped a boatload of criticism on McAuliffe for failing to do so himself and show Virginians that McAuliffe is THE actual capitalist success story.

Cuccinelli wound up releasing a total of 225 pages of tax returns to the media while forbidding copies to be made and expunging some personal information. According to his (no doubt fudged) 2012 tax return, Virginia’s libertarian prince (in name only) raked in $194,398 (taxpayer money, mind you) and $30,000 for writing his unreadable book (if Cuccinelli only made $30,000 for writing his book then he’s certainly not the individual Virginians want negotiating for their futures!).

Okay, so there are the ‘facts’, but really, who cares? The mainstream media (e.g., The Washington Post) story line sounds exactly like this: “The tax drama has brought new controversy to the nationally watched contest, one of only two gubernatorial races this year.” What controversy, what drama?! You, the mainstream media, have made this issue out to be more than it is!

Unless a social scientist with too much grant money and time on their hands releases a study with the profound and undisputable conclusion that individual wealth is a perfect predictor of candidate policies while in office, how much money candidate A makes is really immaterial (up to a certain point) in terms of their fitness for office. In fact, in some circumstances, strong individual wealth is an advantage for advocates of progressive policies.

Mitt Romney, to give one example, wasn’t attacked for being wealthy, he was attacked because he made his wealth by ushering at least thousands of Americans out of their jobs. You are free to make money in America, just not at the expense of your fellow countrymen and women. It’s a thing I like to call being a decent human being.

That said, it’s difficult to understand what Cuccinelli’s game plan is in moving to pressure McAuliffe to turn over his tax returns. What McAuliffe’s tax returns show is that he is a competent businessman who is well-off but not absurdly so; well-off enough, as well, to resist pressures from special interests who can ply the middle-income politician with economic favors and sweetheart deals.

Oh yeah, but let’s not forget about the ongoing/unfolding relationship between Cuccinelli and his bro, Jonnie Williams Sr. How about releasing more information on that sordid relationship, Cuccinelli?!

Conservative women’s PAC strikes at McAuliffe for his sensible policy positions on abortion

A conservative women’s group makes about as much sense to me as Don King’s hair-do, but no one ever said the world should abide by my sense of reasonable and unreasonable. And so it is that a political action committee (PAC) made up of conservative women backing Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for governor has released an ad “in Virginia’s urban markets” that attacks Democratic Party candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, on abortion.

The name of the PAC is Women Speak Out Virginia, a group with ties to the countrywide anti-abortion PAC, Susan B. Anthony List. Over the next two weeks, Richmond, Hampton Roads, and markets in northern Virginia will be hit with ads taking issue with McAuliffe’s political position on abortion.

In particular, Women Speak Out Virginia is attacking McAuliffe for opposing new regulations that will force stand-alone abortion clinics to abide by the same building standards as hospitals, potentially forcing a large majority of Virginia abortion clinics to shut down.

Besides making a deal with the devil (i.e. Ken Cuccinelli), it has always been curious to me why anti-abortion women’s groups would align themselves so thoroughly with a political party whose primary, if not only, common cause is each groups position on abortion.

Aside from the Republican Party’s “pro-life” policy position, the GOP has done more to throw women back into their pre-suffrage social roles over the past few years alone than a time machine could have.

Understandably, the issue of abortion is highly emotionally charged, an issue that touches one of the deepest rights that any individual has: control over his or her body. But with the gargantuan list of offenses by the Republican Party (state, Federal, local, you name it)  against other rights earned by women, one still has to question the intelligence of these women’s groups.

If they were smart, they would attempt to work from within the Democratic Party to bring about a gradual change in its policy positions on abortion. After all, the Democratic Party is the clear champion on women’s rights. So why align yourselves with a group of politicians who would no sooner outlaw abortions then begin focusing on stripping away just about every fundamental right that women in this country have? 

Firing state employees (even taxation employees) isn’t a solution to budgetary shortfalls

In a move by the Virginia Department of Taxation that will offend few Virginians, the state agency intends on scrapping its Criminal Investigative Unit, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch. The move by Virginia’s taxation police is expected to save $120,000 a year.

The Richmond Times Dispatch reported that two investigators will be fired and four other members of the Criminal Investigative Unit will be reassigned to different areas of the agency’s compliance department, effective July 1.

Joel Davison, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Taxation, says the agency will continue to hand over research data associated with tax returns to the offices of local prosecutors as requested.

So one question that arises is, why did the agency need this unit in the first place? It would be a terrible irony if the ‘unit’ charged with catching Virginian’s cheating on their taxes was one of the biggest tax cheats in the state.

While I’ll leave government bashing to those on the right, there is a shred of legitimacy to the constant bad-mouthing of government inefficiency that goes on by those on the political right.

With that said, moves like this by Virginia’s government is laughable in terms of the actual dent it makes in Virginia’s overall scheme of debt reduction and “belt-tightening.”

What the government of Virginia should be focused on is investing in better roads and better schools for ALL Virginians to turn this state into a brain-trust that would make Mr. Spock look like Mr. T.

The politics as to why such ‘commonsense’ solutions have been so elusive is as transparent today as it was over two thousand years ago in Ancient Rome: take the road most traveled and go for the easy political wins (i.e., firing government employees) even if those wins are, at best, short term.

Then again, maybe if we’d start looking a little bit deeper into the cozy relationships between big-wig business elites and their political puppets in the Virginia General Assembly and across the high echelons of Virginia’s bureaucracy, we’d see more clearly why straightforward and rational decisions are all too often disregarded for the difficult and absurd. Governor McDonnell had a Ferrari, E-I, E-I, O!

Ken Cuccinelli declines to begin investigation into his own relationship with Star Scientific CEO

In order to allay any concerns that Virginians do/may have about Attorney General (AG) Ken Cuccinelli’s personal relationship with Star Scientific CEO, Jonnie Williams Sr., the AG has chosen to do…nothing.

In this legal conflict of interest, the very individual who has the ethical and legal spotlight being fixed on him (i.e., Ken Cuccinelli) is the same individual who would have to launch the investigation into his own alleged legal wrongdoings (i.e., Virginia’s attorney general). And Cuccinelli hasn’t expressed a great enthusiasm for doing so, which is all the more interesting given his legal crusade against former University of Virginia climate scientist, Michael Mann. It appears that (**gulp**) Ken Cuccinelli is picking and choosing winners! I know, a libertarian/conservative leaning politician who’s a hypocrite, big shocker!

Given the potential of carrying this scandal further into the gubernatorial campaign ‘season’, it’s not surprising that Cuccinelli has chosen not to investigate any possible legal wrongdoings on his part as a result of his close relationship to the legally embattled CEO of Star Scientific, Jonnie Williams Sr., and his $10,000 worth of stock that Virginia’s AG purchased in the company which he then failed to disclose. Oh yeah, and Cuccinelli also ramped up his stock holdings in Star Scientific after the company sued the state of Virginia in 2011. Oops!

Cuccinelli claims he was unaware of the case Star Scientific was bringing against the Commonwealth. But Cuccinelli’s ‘ignorance’ defense is amusing, hypocritical, and totally absurd.

His ignorance defense is amusing because it is used just as readily by the guilty as the innocent in legal proceedings. “Your honor, I swear I didn’t know”! And how often do you think this line of defense wins over a judge?

His defense is hypocritical because as a knight of the libertarian cause, it is personal responsibility and individual choice which define this political philosophy above all other ideas. And by this measure, the measure of orthodoxy to THE fundamental principle of libertarian thought, Cuccinelli’s ignorance defense undercuts the very ideology which he so publicly and ardently beats others with (e.g., Michael Mann, who Cuccinelli alleged to have misused the public’s tax dollars).  

So whether or not Cuccinelli broke Virginia law, he has broken the fundamental dogma of the ideology he has so energetically attempted to wrap into his own personal political brand: individual responsibility. Isn’t it the responsibility of the attorney general to ensure that the company he/she is investing in isn’t in a legal battle with his/her state?!

Big litmus test failure for purity, Cuccinelli. Now we’ll wait and see how long it is before the Tea Partiers devour their former prince if his fall from grace continues.   

Bob McDonnell’s deputy secretary of natural resources departs for Christopher Newport Uni

On Friday, Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Doug Domenech, announced that the deputy secretary of natural resources for the McDonnell administration, Maureen Matsen, has left to become university counsel at Christopher Newport University.

In addition to serving as deputy secretary of natural resources (in a Republican administration, this means deputy secretary for fossil fuels) for McDonnell, Matsen was also the embattled governor’s senior energy adviser, a “critical post” according to the Associated Press for a Republican governor that has stressed energy development in Virginia.

Matsen was reportedly involved “in virtually every aspect” of Governor McDonnell’s efforts to make the Commonwealth the “energy capital of the East Coast.” Unfortunately for Virginians, few people in the McDonnell administration received the memo that pointed out not all energy has to come from fossil fuels (even though he’s paid lip-service to renewable energy).  

The McDonnell administration’s fixation on short-term energy solutions like natural gas and coal has been a disappointment for Virginians who see a great opportunity for the Commonwealth to lead the way in terms of renewable energy.

Adjacent to Virginia is the Atlantic Ocean, an immense source of wind energy were the proper investments made to harness it. In combination with an intelligently managed solar power initiative/incentive program by Virginia’s government, we could easily lay the foundations for an energy future much more devoid of dead-end forms of energy like natural gas, coal, and oil.

No one ever said the road to renewable energy would be the easiest path, but present circumstances and future generations deserve our honest endeavors to set forth the path to a cleaner energy future.

From all indications, Matsen was another typical “all of the above” Virginian bureaucrat, confusing short-term ease for with overall practicality and morality (if this word can still be used anymore). Thus, I’m not saddened to see her depart.

The good news for McDonnell and his administration, though, is that at least this time around the news isn’t about an “ethical lapse” on the part of McDonnell. 

Gov. Bob McDonnell does Star Scientific CEO a favor by driving the latter’s Ferrari home from vacation

As if Gov. Bob McDonnell needed another “ethical lapse” added to his public record, he recently got one after it was discovered that McDonnell “took a lake-house vacation in 2011 courtesy of the same major campaign donor who paid for the food at the wedding of the governor’s daughter that summer.” And so the plot thickens…

Adding EVEN MORE to this growing scandal is the following: according to a McDonnell spokesman, McDonnell claims that he and his family did the CEO of Star Scientific, Jonnie R. Williams Sr., a favor by driving William’s beautiful white Ferrari home from McDonnell’s vacation spot at Smith Mountain Lake. The Ferrari that McDonnell drove is reportedly worth a whopping retail price of $190,000.

The most puzzling thing about this latest piece of the scandal pie is McDonnell’s defense of his actions. According to McDonnell’s spokesman, “…the governor and his family have taken a vacation at Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke every summer since he took office in 2010 — each time as a gift from a donor.” That is, don’t worry Virginia, I do this every year, it’s not a big deal. What?! You’ve almost got to admire the audacity of this man!

Here’s also a fun fact for you: elected officials are allowed to accept gifts of any size as long as they are disclosed yearly, according to Virginia law.

Fellow Virginians, I’m not concerned what party Rep. Money-bags is a puppet for. These “ethical lapses” are an outrageous affront to our republican form of government and to every hard-working Virginian who wants their voice to be heard just as equally as the next Virginian. But if the game is being gamed in favor of the wealthy who can give extravagant gifts, then clearly not all Virginians have an equal voice.

And just as clearly, McDonnell has violated the public’s trust and has tarnished the office of Virginia governor. But just stay tuned, this scandal seems to grow a little bit more every week. Who knows what new unofficial bribe will be uncovered next week. I hope Bob McDonnell has made plans outside of politics!

In effort to divert public attention from Star Scientific, Cuccinelli ‘promises’ tax return release

I  have to admit that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli continues to fascinate me with his campaign’s disjointed and bald attempts to recast this elitist socialite who infuses social conservatism with radical libertarian appeals as a “man of the people.” And in its latest attempt to do so, Cuccinelli’s campaign has ‘promised’ it will release 8 years worth of personal tax returns while pressuring his Democratic opponent for governor, Terry McAuliffe, to do the same.

But here’s the really funny part. Cuccinelli’s campaign “has offered to make those tax forms available for inspection to reporters who want to drive to Fairfax County for a peek Thursday and Friday, billing that as an indication of the attorney general's commitment to transparency.” This sounds real transparent if you have the time to make a trip to Fairfax County on a typical work day to view Cuccinelli’s tax returns. This is what could be called a political ‘false positive’, an attempt to promote a certain image while not actually doing anything substantive. What a man of the people, indeed!

In an email statement issued by Cuccinelli on Wednesday, he stated that “The decision to make my tax returns available to the public will hopefully provide voters more information as they decide who to support this fall." 

Of course, the primary reason behind Cuccinelli’s newfound “transparency” is to push the media’s and the voter’s attention away from the growing Star Scientific scandal that Cuccinelli is squarely in the center of. 

Unless we have different conceptions on what a man of the people does while in public office, it doesn’t consist of taking thousands of dollars from a man whose company is under state investigation. But we’re all sure this was just a mistake!

The contributions received by Cuccinelli are more than a so-called “ethical lapse” due to the nature of the action. That is, in taking the contribution, Cuccinelli was committing such an egregious ethical violation that one has to assume other “lapses” have taken place in the past.

I will concede, however, that all the facts are far from known and will, in all likelihood, never be known. For instance, did Cuccinelli really not see the ethical dilemma in taking a contribution from Star Scientifics’ CEO Jonnie Williams Sr.? If so, however, wouldn’t we have to question Cuccinelli’s competency?

This scandal only goes to show us once again that it’s those who scream the loudest that are often times the ones with the most skeletons in their closet. 

Del. Joe Morrissey writes Cuccinelli, alerting the AG to the conflicts of interests in the Star case

In a letter pointed out by Paul Goldman and Lowell Feld, Del. Joe Morrissey recently wrote to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, ‘alerting’ the attorney general to the improper rendering of legal services in the Virginia tax lawsuit against Star Scientific.

The opening lines of Del. Morrissey’s letter begin: “I hope that this letter finds you well and enjoying this pleasant spring weather.  With respect to the above referenced matter, a reading of §2.2-510 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, reveals that your recent appointment of Mr. Rosenthal and Mr. Hurd to represent the Commonwealth in the state tax lawsuit against Star Scientific is improper and in violation of the Virginia Code.” The rest of the letter can be found at the blog, Blue Virginia.

What is most telling about Del. Morrissey’s letter, aside from the legal forcefulness of its language, is the civility that infuses each paragraph.

Because Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is running for the soon-to-be open position of Virginia governor and he is, for all intents and purposes, a stark representation of how politics has changed over the past few years (i.e., a radical right-winger), the scandal surrounding Star Scientific and Cuccinelli’s role in it has generated a great deal of bitter partisan language that has only exasperated the animosity between Democrats and Republicans in Virginia’s legislature.

While the very thought of Ken Cuccinelli becoming Virginia’s next governor sends chills down my spine, getting into the mud with Cuccinelli isn’t the most effective path forward in this gubernatorial campaign or for Virginian’s more generally. If anyone needs a more vivid example, simply look at the U.S. Congress.

I’ve called Cuccinelli names before (and will most likely do so again in the future), but I’ve never forgotten that civility is the most effective, and maybe the only way, forward for our republican form of government. Because in a republic, we have to be able to constructively talk with one another and not at one another or past one another.

Del. Morrissey’s letter represents a step away from the current toxic and overly partisan political environment: a fair-minded, civil, and legal argument that seeks to align the public actions of one public official to the laws of Virginia. Whatever your party colors are, it is examples like these that trump party affiliation for a deeper sense of what it means to be a member of a republican form of government.

Over 100,000 uninsured residents of Virginia may receive treatment for addiction in 2014

Socialism is back in full force under the evil-doer President Obama, and this time it’s aimed at Virginians with drug and alcohol addictions. Once the Affordable Care Act takes effect, according to a recent report, over 100,000 uninsured residents of Virginia with drug and alcohol addictions will be covered.

The health care reform legislation pushed by President Obama will go into effect in 2014.

According to the Associated Press, close to 9% of Virginians need treatment for alcohol and drug abuse and only 65,000 of those 559,000 Virginians who need treatment are currently receiving it.

If Virginia chooses to widen the nets of Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act would start to cover 172,490 addicts, according to an estimate given by the Associated Press.

And, the Associated Press ominously points out, close to 93% of the 957 beds at Virginia treatment centers are currently occupied.

To the libertarian and a good deal of conservatives, this report is yet another example of how far America has come on the path of the welfare state. And in this case, I would absolutely have to agree.

But before we go throwing the baby out with the bathwater, let’s see if we can agree on a few important reasons why expanding insurance coverage for drug and alcohol addictions is a worthwhile idea.

First, everyone deserves a second chance at living a self-fulfilling life. All of us have had second chances in life, even if we won’t admit it (I’m thinking about you conservatives and libertarians, those who apparently have never been lent a helping hand). For individuals born into disadvantageous circumstances, it’s not always as easy as saying, “pick yourself up by your bootstraps.”

Secondly, while those on the right like to pretend that expanding Medicaid for individuals with drug and alcohol addictions is a big financial compact, relatively speaking it will no doubt be a drop in Virginia’s and America’s financial bucket. So why concern ourselves with shooting down an idea with good intentions and a relatively small budget at this time? If the expansion proves to be a failure some years down the road, then we can seriously discuss rolling back Medicaid for this group of individuals.

Lending a helping hand does not inherently lead to personal reliance. On the contrary, lending a helping hand could turn someone’s life around for the better, for the rest of their lives. 

Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe has good first quarter earnings

In what is a good first quarter start for the Democratic Party hopeful for Virginia’s governorship, Terry McAuliffe, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee reported $5.1 million in fundraising over the first quarter. His rival, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, raised closed to $2.4 million.

For McAuliffe, the contrast in fundraising figures between himself and Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli amounts to a victory on two fronts. First, McAuliffe’s $5.1 million in fundraising represents a 21% increase over the same time frame four years ago in his effort to beat out Democratic Party competitor, Creigh Deeds.

Secondly, whatever the reasons may be for McAuliffe’s lopsided fundraising figures, the perception of a lopsided fundraising victory over his rival is a big early victory for the McAuliffe campaign.

Cuccinelli’s campaign will no doubt respond to these figures by pointing out that Cuccinelli was prohibited by Virginia law from raising money during the Virginia General Assembly session. And we can all sympathize with someone who’s elected to represent the interests of the people of Virginia while running their own political campaign on the people’s time…

The money raising contest should be a tight one, however.  For all of McAuliffe’s fundraising wizardry, Cuccinelli has at least two individuals with a lot of money to burn and the willingness to throw a lot of it away on disastrously non-liberty loving candidates like Ken Cuccinelli. I’m referring to Charles and David Koch.

So fans and supporters of McAuliffe shouldn’t begin high-fiving one another as if the contest were already decided. There is still a ways to go.  

Mental health system in Virginia still not receiving the serious attention and investment it needs

In an article written by Rep. Joseph R. Yost (12^th District – Giles County, Radford, parts of Pulaski and Montgomery counties), the lawmaker articulately pointed out how the 2013 session of the Virginia General Assembly took two steps forward and one step back with regards to Virginia’s mental health system.

Rep. Yost points out that the final budget passed by the VA General Assembly “included additional money for crisis assessment centers and children’s mental health services, doubled the appropriation for discharge assistance planning and provided new money for increased training and stigma reduction through Mental Health First Aid and suicide prevention training.” Who would seriously deny that these are legislative accomplishments?

However, there is a darker side to the changes passed by the VA General Assembly that pertain to Virginia’s mental health system. Negative proposed changes that would affect the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services include: “reducing the reimbursement rate per hour by almost half and imposing stricter eligibility requirements on diagnosis, age and psychiatric history.”

Ultimately, what these negative changes to Virginia’s mental health system will do is make it more difficult for Virginians to receive mental health treatment, especially Virginians in the less advantaged economic classes.

Again, as Rep. Yost so well stated, “While I understand that the department is facing increasing pressure to make changes as a result of exponential growth in spending in Medicaid over the last 25 years, these changes will only shift the spending burden while doing little to help Virginia’s most vulnerable population.”

All too often when discussing greater investments in education or helping Americans with mental health problems, individuals who argue against greater investment fail to account for the economic gains associated with a more educated workforce and a workforce more productive as a result of proper mental health treatment. These individuals only see the dollars being spent today and not the significant amount of money that will be saved tomorrow (not to mention the better lives that thousands, or even millions, of Americans will be able to live).

There is also a sometimes stated, sometimes unstated, fear among individuals primarily of a ‘conservative’ political persuasion that the mental health system is some kind of “out” or excuse for lazy or weak-willed individuals in our society. And as usual, straw-men (or women) examples are given to totally discredit the reality that many, if not most, individuals who take advantage of our mental health system are truly in need of mental health services (please send me a factual reference that states otherwise).

But the only “slippery slope” that expanding Virginia’s mental health services offers is a slope towards greater amounts of recovery from mental health problems. Is improving the lives of potentially thousands of individuals every year not worth the cost?

If we cannot invest in the betterment of our fellow countrymen and women, then what game are we really playing at? What does all of the wealth that our country produces mean if Virginia (and America) is willing to sacrifice the lives of those it deems unworthy of a real shot towards happiness? If we are unwilling to take the time and money to help those less fortunate than ourselves, then the American dream is nothing more than a ridiculous end game that will no sooner succeed than it will fail at what is the most important component of human life: giving back.  

Dred Scott and the legacy that Virginia and the United States can’t ignore

It’s one of America’s many inconvenient truths: certain human beings were at one time considered nothing more than property to be bought and sold. I’m referring, of course, to individuals of African-American descent.

And while the American historical narrative still largely glosses over the issue of slavery, there are notable examples, like the case of Dred Scott, that allow most Americans to obtain some semblance of how prejudice and discriminatory practices were woven tightly into the fabric of American life from its very inception until only a few generations ago.

So it is with some sense of “we’ve come one step closer to facing and overcoming our past” that the Virginia Department of Historic Resources recently announced that it would be dedicating a “historical marker” to Dred Scott in Capron, Virginia.

It was in 1857 that the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision that Dred Scott was mere “property, not a citizen,” and therefore had no legal right to challenge his condition as a slave.

This case and its subsequent decision has been marked by scholars of U.S. history as one of the final nails in the coffin that eventually led to the U.S. Civil War.

All too often in our own time, Virginians, and Americans more generally, act as if the prejudice and discriminatory behavior that allowed slavery to take place in this country were merely a thing of the past, a phenomenon that has absolutely no resonance in the present.

And while prejudice and discrimination on the same scale of the 1950s and before is gone, there still remains a subtle yet powerful residue of the prejudices that were once ingrained so deeply in American culture.

Today, we can see it in how individuals of African-American descent are subtly herded into particular neighborhoods, particular professions like Basketball, and particular images that in some ways deny their equality with other groups of American citizens. These phenomena are so subtle and ingrained into our culture, in fact, that we don’t even perceive them the vast majority of the time.

The sign of a strong culture, of a vibrant nation, is not glossing over or ignoring its past. A strong culture, like an individual willing to look deeply into his or her ‘character flaws’, stares straight into its past, seeing the good just as much as the bad and learning from both.

We, as a country, have not done this. We have framed our past largely on ideals and myths that stand up to scrutiny no more than a tripod stands up to the currents of an ocean. And in this manner of aversion, we lose the opportunity to overcome the scars of the past to become a stronger nation. Just as an individual who constantly runs from his or her fears cannot grow as an individual, so also can a nation not grow until it has embraced its past fully and learned to deal with the mistakes that were made. 

Ken Cuccinelli ditches Virginia Education Association for anti-abortion get-together in D.C.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s political move on Thursday to ditch Virginia’s largest teacher’s union for an anti-abortion ‘summit’ in the nation’s capital will go a long way in reinforcing the image of Cuccinelli as outside of the political mainstream, an image that the McAuliffe campaign  could play with or just leave Cuccinelli to do most of the work for them.

The following fact is striking: “Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates dating back to former Gov. George Allen two decades ago have spoken at the Virginia Education Association's candidate forum, where the organization weighs who to endorse. Democrat Terry McAuliffe spoke and took questions at Thursday's gathering in Hampton.” Thus, Cuccinelli has chosen to break twenty years worth of precedent.

With a book-deal sized ego, however, the move by Cuccinelli to buck precedent isn’t altogether surprising. After all, who needs teachers anyways, right?

According to Anna Nix, spokeswoman for the Cuccinelli campaign, the Virginia Education Association’s (VEA) event was a “labor boss soiree.” Going by these less-than-constructive labels, the anti-abortion summit Cuccinelli attended, the Susan B. Anthony Campaign for Life Gala and Summit, was more like a fete of wild-eyed hypocrites who often seem more willing to take the lives of those who support a woman’s choice, all for their stated purpose of…preserving life. The paradox is astounding.

For political figures like Cuccinelli riding the tide of stupidity and ignorance, their stars won’t last much longer, and when they burn out all that will be left are the bad memories and even worse policy positions that they left behind.

America has always gone through waves of political extremes, whether it be from the so-called left or the so-called right, only to eventually fade with time, much like a headache fades after a time, even though the experience may be excruciatingly painful.

Of course, the threat of Cuccinelli and other like-minded politicians to the progress that has been made on social issues in particular shouldn’t be underestimated or disregarded. It’s real. Cuccinelli would apparently even like to arrest folks who disagree with his slightly south of sane policy positions.

As is always the case in a democracy, freedom of all kinds have to be guarded against by demagogues and tyrants alike. Cuccinelli is unique in that he may be both disguised as the former. 

Aspirant for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring calls for Justice Department investigation

The plot surrounding the scandal involving Star Scientifics’ CEO, Jonnie Williams Sr., Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli only thickened on Thursday after Sen. Mark R. Herring (Loudoun) called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the relationship between Williams, McDonnell, and Cuccinelli (affectionately known as the love trio).

Sen. Herring, alongside Justin Fairfax, is running as a Democratic candidate for Virginia’s attorney general position. So what a great break for Herring and Fairfax to get such a clear opportunity to capitalize on, at the very least, misconduct unbecoming of elected officials.

In a statement, Herring threw down the legal gauntlet: ““Over the last several days, Virginians have read about the extravagant gifts given to Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli by Chief Executive Officer Jonnie Williams and his company Star Scientific, which has business before the state.” You can almost hear the old Batman “Kaboom!” sounds following Herring’s statement.

Herring went on further to say, “The gifts and the cozy relationship between these individuals and this company have raised concerns in Virginians’ minds about what these gifts resulted in. In order to restore the public trust, I am calling for an outside and independent investigation to determine if any legal or ethical lines have been crossed, or if public policy has been influenced in any way.” My only point of departure with Herring’s statement is that right-minded Virginia’s have been concerned about McDonnell and Cuccinelli for some time.

As I discussed before, were we to turn over the rocks embedded in Virginia’s political soil, the “Star Scientific relationships” would probably be more of the norm rather than the exception. While this is merely speculation on my part, I’ll leave it to the well-paid journalists to figure it out in the near future (that is, to prove me right).

For now, however, it’s Cuccinelli and McDonnell under the media’s and the public’s scrutiny. Can you hear the great Don Henley song in the background, “New York Minute”? Well, it just may be that their relationship with William’s may be the end of their political aspirations, at least for a time.

And it all happened so fast, in the blink of an eye. How things can change in an instant and kudos to Sen. Herring (and I’m sure Mr. Fairfax concurs) on bringing this issue further up the legal food chain so that greater justice can have its day. 

Sen. Donald McEachin suggests closing gift loophole in Virginia law in wake of McDonnell scandal

Another member of the Democratic Party of Virginia has once again sought to infuse some reason into Virginia politics. A great friend of sensible ideas, Sen. Donald McEachin (Henrico) stated his support on Tuesday for closing the gaping hole in Virginia’s law books that allows gifts to be given to an elected official’s immediate relatives without being reported.

Sen. McEachin made this statement after being asked about a $15,000 payment that Star Scientifics’ embattled CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr. gave to “cover catering costs at the June 2011 wedding of one of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s daughters.”

According to The Washington Post, Virginia law allows elected officials to accept unlimited gifts so long as gifts worth over $50 are disclosed. However, gifts to immediate family members don’t need to be publicly disclosed.  

The violation of the letter and spirit of ethical conduct is so clear in this case that any argument to the contrary is absurd on its face.

I can easily understand and condone an occasional business meal with an elected official, but unlimited gifts under $50 is a Grand Canyon-sized causeway for bribery on a subtle but effective scale. If I wanted, for instance, to treat Representative A to dinner every night of the week, supposing the total cost is under $50, I could under Virginia law. Now, in what way can this behavior, or the very potential for it, not be viewed upon as a means of swaying an elected official through gifts? It is, in other words, clearly a form of bribery if done on a consistent and regular basis.

And then there are the gifts that can be given to immediate family members without being publicly disclosed. If I have just funded the wedding of Representative A’s daughter, how is this not a form of bribery? How is paying $15,000, give or take a few grand, not a way of influencing our elected officials in Virginia?

Clearly, it is, otherwise we would have to assume that Jonnie Williams Sr. forked over $15,000 out of the infinite goodness of his heart. But men like Williams don’t get to be CEO’s of multi-million dollar companies by giving merely out of the goodness of their hearts. There is almost always an ulterior motive.

It is up to us as Virginians to stop looking away at these glaring problems in Virginia’s political system. This might be the way the game is played at present, but this system isn’t inevitable and it is wrong.

Thankfully Virginia has elected officials like Donald McEachin still willing to stand up for what is right. Now it’s on the people of Virginia to give him and likeminded elected officials the political support that they need to see reform through till the end. 

Fairfax County public school teachers push back on new teacher evaluation system

Ever want a potent example of just how counterproductive our ‘efficiency’ society has become in Virginia and across the nation, then look no further then Virginia’s public schools. There you’ll find the time consuming and counterproductive practices of teacher self-evaluations. And on Monday, during a Fairfax County school board meeting, a survey was reviewed that showed teachers spend “at least” three hours a week preparing for their evaluations.

According to Rachel Baye at The Examiner, “School board members expressed concern about the complaints they have been receiving about the new system.” There’s a shocker.

Fairfax County Public Schools created the new teacher evaluation system in 2012 to meet the requirements “of the Virginia Department of Education’s waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Law. Under state rules, 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation must be based on student achievement.”

Thus, Fairfax County Public Schools and their teacher evaluation system is not the only impediment to a better school system throughout the Commonwealth, it is the restrictive and arbitrary nature of Virginia’s own requirements that force teachers and teacher’s assistants to ‘teach to the grade’, and not necessarily teach to student understanding in a manner that each teacher deems appropriate.

Oh, and there’s also the point of taking up so much of a teacher’s ‘personal time’ (uncompensated, of course) on job activities outside of work. And then there is the factor of how underpaid and underappreciated so many of Virginia’s teachers are. Add all of these points up (including the restrictive method of teaching that Virginia’s teachers are being required to abide by) and you have a perfect recipe for burnt-out and frustrated educators and a classroom full of kids who are frustrated with the dry standards of learning (SOL)-like curriculum. And there are still more reasons that could be named!

It’s really no wonder that so many bemoan the downfall of America’s system of education. 

Democratic Party candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, comes out in support of marriage equality

While many of us, including myself, often bemoan the “flip-flopping” positions of political representatives, it’s unfair and unreasonable to expect that political representatives will not change some of their political views over time. As we grow as individuals, with different experiences and subsequent points of view, the world and our ideas about it can change.

So when Democratic Party candidate for Virginia’s governorship, Terry McAuliffe, stated publicly on Saturday at a fundraiser for Equality Virginia that he supports marriage equality, it shouldn’t have come as some odious “flip-flop” or a mere catering to the current political context (even if caving to the political times is a big reason for McAuliffe’s announcement).

While at the Equality Virginia fundraiser, McAuliffe said, “We’ve got to make sure that Virginia is open and welcoming to everybody.”

On the other side of the debate is Republican Party challenger for governor of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, who has chosen a distinct political tract on the issue of marriage equality.

Cuccinelli is challenging a ruling by the judiciary prohibiting anti-sodomy laws on constitutional grounds, adding to Cuccinelli’s already notable record for attempting to slow or even roll back discriminatory protections in Virginia based on sexual preference.  

From this vantage point it’s difficult to see how Cuccinelli could ever convincingly turn back towards the middle of the political spectrum on the issue of marriage equality (assuming he ever chooses to do so). If he did , Cuccinelli WOULD be making a noteworthy and undeniably “flip-floppish” political no-no.

Thus, there is an area within which political representatives cannot approach without coming across to their respective constituents as ‘insincere’, ‘fake’, or swaying along with the political winds with no real political conviction of their own.

It’s one thing for Terry McAuliffe to come out in support of marriage equality. McAuliffe has never attempted to restrict or even retard the rights of homosexuals. Cuccinelli, on the other hand, has oddly made it something of a crusade to erode the rights of homosexuals in Virginia.

What makes it worse is that it’s difficult to tell whether Cuccinelli is sincere in his prosecution of homosexuals in Virginia or if he is a playing a cynical political game. For better or worse, it may be more of the former and a little bit less of the latter. 

Virginia’s Democratic Party contenders for attorney general support equal rights for all Virginians

In what may be a tight race for Virginia’s next attorney general, Sen. Mark Herring (Fairfax and Loudon counties) and former federal prosecutor, Justin Fairfax, each stated unequivocally on Friday their support for same sex marriage and “equality rights” more generally.

On Friday, Justin Fairfax told Metro Weekly that he’s in favor of “repealing the adoption/fostering “conscience clause,” saying the legislation is overly broad and that placement decisions should be base on the best interests children [sic].”

But it was Sen. Mark Herring who caught the most attention from the mainstream media on Friday after he released his “equality agenda” on issues pertaining to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights.

In a conference call on Friday with the media and “activists,” Herring pointed to his pro-LGBT record and “promised to use the power of the attorney general’s office to protect LGBT rights, with particular regard to nondiscrimination, bullying and adoption.” During the call, Herring contrasted his pro-tolerance record with the non-tolerant political record of Virginia’s current attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli.

Herring’s political record on the issue of LGBT rights certainly has credit, as evidenced by the perfect rating given to Herring on LGBT rights on the 2012 legislative scorecard issued by Virginia’s main LGBT-advocacy organization, Equality Virginia.

Looking at the recent widespread and sustained surge of support for equal rights for same sex couples, it’s surprising just how fast the issue came to the political foreground and shocking that it took so long for this issue to do so.

As is so often the case in politics, our political context in America opened the path for repressed social issues like LGBT rights that pits the Democratic Party, with their progressive position on LGBT rights, against the Republican Party who are…conservative.

It will be a tough choice for Democrats in Virginia when it comes time to vote for our next attorney general. Fairfax and Herring both have solidly progressive views on a number of important issues, including LGBT rights.

The biggest strike I can find between either of them is Fairfax’s legalistic reasoning in support of same sex rights. While both candidates are lawyers, Herring plays the political harp to the tune of popular speech, not legalese.

If there is one word of advice I can offer Mr. Fairfax, it’s this: sound like a man of the people, not a man of the courtroom speaking to the people. 

McDonnell and Cuccinelli play defense in the ongoing scandal saga surrounding Jonnie Williams Sr.

Virginia’s attorney general and governor both played defense on Friday as the questions surrounding their relationship with a Goochland County businessman, Jonnie R. Williams Sr., continues to chip away at both of their political aspirations for higher elected office.

While Williams attempted to “keep his company solvent and out of legal trouble,” he continued to distribute hefty political donations and thousands of dollars in gifts. Williams has been under federal investigation for securities issues.

As a testament to just how close McDonnell, Cuccinelli, and Williams were (and presumably still are), neither McDonnell or Cuccinelli have sought to distance themselves entirely from Williams. No doubt, each has concluded that such an audacious attempt to do so would only throw an even more concentrated 

spotlight on to their already suspect relationships.

McDonnell has said that he considers Williams Sr. a friend while Cuccinelli has reportedly stated that he has maintained a “friendly relationship” with Williams Sr.

When asked by the Richmond Times Dispatch for a disclosure of all Jonnie Williams’s gifts and political donations, both politicians sent back emailed responses. While Cuccinelli’s response wasn’t mired down in vague political speech, McDonnell’s response was. According to one of McDonnell’s spokesman, “Gifts and contributions from Mr. Williams and many other individuals and companies were disclosed on the governor’s statements of economic interest in 2011 and 2012.” Fellow Virginians, this is public relations mistake number one: being vague or lying under the spotlight of a political scandal.

I would also think that McDonnell would want to quickly and completely disclose any and all political gifts and donations to the public to put this scandal behind him, unless of course he has something to hide.

In other words, both politicians have acted like they have something to hide and given the circumstances of this case, there’s probably good reason for them to act in this manner.

The unfortunate truth about this latest scandal in Virginia politics is that if the mainstream media were to search deeper into the goings-on of Virginia’s politicians, they would probably find a whole lot more ‘conflicts of interest’, albeit on a smaller and subtler scale. Cuccinelli’s and McDonnell’s greatest sin is that they are in the primetime spotlight of Virginian politics.

Republican politics (with a little “r”) is greased by the deals, the bargains, the gifts, and the favors of those in politics and the private sphere. It just so happens that Cuccinelli and McDonnell got caught in the eye of the storm, a storm from which they may not recover. 

Bob McDonnell announces public-private partnership between state and private cyber industry

Isn’t a public-private ‘partnership’ semi-socialism? Not if it’s a Republican politician who is sponsoring/establishing the partnership!

On Thursday, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the “Semper Secure” partnership between the Virginia state government and Virginia’s private cyber security sector. Hopefully the partnership won’t be as lackluster as the name “Semper Secure”!

McDonnell’s news release announcing the partnership stated that a number of cyber security issues will be focused on, including: workforce availability, workforce preparedness, and “fostering entrepreneurship” (of course!).

A so-called independent board of directors will steer the public-private partnership and report on an annual basis to the governor. The board will consist of cyber security experts from government and private industry. 

Two of the participating companies include Virginia’s favorite company to waste money on, Northrop Grumman Corp and NetApp.

But it is clear that the public and private sectors cannot stand alone in this increasingly complex world of cyber crimes that has arisen in parallel with the more positive aspects of cyber technology. Cyber security threats, after all, are targeted at both the private and public sectors.

If I dare to dream then maybe, just maybe, Virginia can finally become a national leader in something positive, namely Virginia’s ability to create and maintain a strong public-private cyber security relationship. 

Penalties for texting while driving are reduced while tax on fuel-efficient vehicles remain…

So while a majority of Virginia’s legislators decided it was a good idea to impose a tax on fuel-efficient hybrid cars, many of these same legislators also thought it was a good idea to follow Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to reduce fines of those caught texting while driving. Absolutely brilliant!

At present, $20 is assessed for first offenses and $50 for second-time offenders. However, the transportation package that was passed before the end of the regular session of the General Assembly increased fines to $250 and $500, respectively. $500 was also set as the minimum fine for a conviction for reckless driving while texting.

Now, with the approval of Bob McDonnell’s proposal, both of these fines are being cut in half to $125 and $250, respectively. According to The Virginian-Pilot, both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly approved McDonnell’s proposal “by wide margins” on Wednesday. Brilliant!

One non-asinine aspect of the newly approved legislation is making texting while driving a primary offense, an upgrade from its current secondary offense status. As a primary offense, Virginia police can stop anyone they catch texting while driving and hand them a ticket.

If you’re one of those drivers who text while driving and are upset about the new legislation, then tough noogies. As a country we take for granted that we are maneuvering an object that weighs thousands of pounds, oftentimes at high speeds. That is, with driving comes the responsibility to be a safe driver and texting while driving doesn’t fit the bill.

As such, a $250 and $500 fine structure would have been A-okay with me. Maybe then we wouldn’t need extra traffic lanes on I-95 because drivers will actually be paying attention to the road (yes, drivers actually text on I-95!).

And by raising the fines for texting while driving on individuals who clearly lack a sense of how much risk they are putting themselves and others on the road at, the blasphemous hybrid car tax could be eliminated.

In this way, Virginians who care about saving money on gas and maybe even helping the planet can remain unpenalized while folks who increase the dangers of driving can face stiffer penalties for their carelessness. 

What about this scheme doesn’t make sense? Of course, I’m making the audacious assumption that most members of Virginia’s General Assembly have good sense most of the time.  

Terry McAuliffe becomes official Democratic Party candidate for governor on Tuesday

On Tuesday, it became official: Democratic Party candidate for governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, is THE nominee for his party. McAuliffe was the only Democratic candidate to file for the governor’s showdown at the Virginia State Board of Elections before the deadline last week.

In all, McAuliffe turned in 35,746 signatures during his filing last week. Candidates for Virginia’s governorship need 10,000 signatures to qualify for a run at Virginia’s Executive Mansion.

In a statement released following his official candidacy, McAuliffe stated, “I am grateful for the support of Virginians from all parties and from every corner of Virginia…With their [roughly 500 volunteers] help, I will continue to work tirelessly to spread our message of finding mainstream ideas to make Virginia the best for business.”

Okay, so it’s not the ringing progressive statement that gets the Democratic Party base fired up but McAuliffe knows that he’ll be competing for the hearts and minds of ‘moderates’ in Virginia.

Additionally, the Democratic Party approved the petitions for lieutenant governor between Virginia Senator Ralph Northam (Norfolk) and Aneesh Chopra, former White House information security chief. Virginia Sen. Mark Herring and former federal prosecutor Justin Fairfax were also approved for the contest over Virginia’s next attorney general.

All in all, the Democratic Party stands a good chance of winning all three posts: governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. After four (4) years of Republican Party ludicrousness, the need for a change cannot be understated. 

Fairfax County judge rules in favor of Sikh men ordered to pay fee to have weddings performed

For Virginia’s ‘bearers of tradition’, the times, they are ah changin’ fast. On Monday, Fairfax County Judge Dennis Smith ruled on the side of four (4) Sikh men who filed suit in opposition to a Virginia law that requires religious faiths with no ordained ministers to pay $500 to perform marriage ceremonies.

Judge Smith ruled that the requirement to post a bond is “an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of religion.” The Fairfax County judge ordered that the four (4) Sikh men be licensed to perform marriages without paying the $500 bond to perform weddings.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia represented the four (4) Sikh men and asked the Virginia General Assembly to change the current law to reflect Judge Smith’s ruling on Monday.

For Virginia’s old guard, the world that their forebears knew must appear to be shattering around them. 

First, civil rights for people of color, then a turn away from a rigid religious adherence, abortion rights, same-sex marriage rights (on the way!), and now potentially similar civil rights for peoples of different religious faiths like the Sikhs. Who knows where it will end!

But it shouldn’t have to be a mutually exclusive situation. That is, the opening of civil rights to other groups shouldn’t, in and of itself, be the death knell for the values and beliefs of Virginia’s conservative population.

For too long, Americans have been caught over the debate of civil rights with a rigid winner-takes-all mindset, not allowing for the space of two different ideologies fitting under the roof of our republic. As a result, the victory of one group (e.g., proponents of same-sex marriage) must necessarily be to the total defeat of the opposing group. But this isn’t entirely true.

There can still be morality without state sanctioned religion or high-rates of church goers. There can still be a vigorous 2^nd Amendment with reasonable forms of gun control. Businesses can still thrive under a well thought out system of regulations. Americans of vastly different world-views can still live under the same government without eventually coming to blows.

Our perceptions of the world shape it. So let’s make sure that we view the world with an open mind and yes, an open heart. 

CCAN mounts a brilliant ad campaign against the fossil fuel Goliath of VA, Dominion VA Power

In what amounts to a brilliant frontal assault on Virginia’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter, Dominion Virginia Power, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) proved yet again that Virginia’s energy Goliath won’t be able to stomp over Virginia’s future forever.

As the world warms, Dominion Virginia Power seems as committed as ever to continue down its usual path of greenhouse gas intensive energy production. On Monday, Dominion took the steps necessary to “move forward” with its Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) liquefaction project. The price tag on this global warming nightmare is anywhere between $3.4 billion and $3.8 billion, according to an application submitted on Monday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In their kind-heartedness, Dominion has chosen to build a ‘relatively environmentally friendly’ energy plant by selecting LNG. The fact remains, however, that LNG adds a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, from the cradle to the grave, to the planet’s atmosphere. **Cough, cough**

CCAN’s latest ad reminds Virginians how ludicrous it is for Dominion Virginia Power to publicly present itself as ‘environmentally friendly’ or in touch with the demands of Virginians for clean energy. If Dominion spent half as much money actually investing in clean energy research and development and construction as it does with public relations activities to give itself an environmentally friendly pat on the back, Virginia would already be well on its way to averting a climate change induced environmental disaster.

Does Dominion have futures stocks in Virginia’s destruction (partly joking)?!

There will be opponents of CCAN’s latest ad, those who will say something along these lines: if not LNG, then what, you environmentalists want your cake and to eat it too. My response is this: continuing to focus and invest in fossil fuel sources of energy will not only contribute to the continuing warming of our planet and the negative consequences that it brings, it will also disincentivize stronger investments in existing renewable energy technologies and forward-thinking energy technologies like hydrogen cells. That is, Dominion is like the couch potato that only gets up after its had a heart attack. Until that time, it will complacently lie around and let the environment surrounding it wither away.

Virginians have to be that heart attack, that spark that wakes Dominion from its fossil fuel stupor. Virginia’s legislators have demonstrated time and again that they are the delivery men and women who deliver the food directly to Dominion instead of making it get up to feed itself. 

Terry McAuliffe ‘statement of economic interest’ shows heavy investments in Virginia

In a clear blow to the Ken Cuccinelli campaign’s attempt to re-image Democratic Party favorite for Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe, as an ‘outsider’, The Washington Examiner recently reported that McAuliffe has “40 major investments” in local governments around Virginia. Opps, there goes that attack line for the Cuccinelli campaign.

Candidates for Virginia’s governorship are required to file statements of economic interest by April 4^th. But candidates don’t have to disclose any investment worth less than $10,000 and can give value to their biggest assets at “$250,000 or more.”

To give one major example of the money that Terry McAuliffe has pumped into Virginia, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee has over $3 million issued in bonds by Virginia’s local governments. 

Some of the biggest bond issues include $250,000 each in Loudoun County, Prince William County, and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. Sounds like quite the outsider, doesn’t he?!

Contrast McAuliffe’s sizable investments in Virginia to that of his Republican Party challenger for governor, Ken Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli’s only noted investment is Star Scientific, a Virginia-based company, at below $50,000. Star Scientific is also the same company that is under federal investigation AND is being sued by an investor who claims that Star Scientific “misstated” the promise of Anatabloc, a dietary supplement of Star Scientific.  

Virginia House Minority Leader David Toscano (Charlottesville) cautioned that Virginians see “handling of a case against a company with which you have this type of relationship as an inexcusable conflict of interest.”

Not surprisingly, Cuccinelli’s campaign spokesperson, Anna Nix, responded that Democrats were “peddling falsehoods and distractions.” It takes one to know one, Ms. Nix; that is the pot calling the kettle black.

Here again is another case of the right-wing demagogue unable or unwilling to practice what they preach or live up to the standards they seemingly hold everyone else to. If, for example, McAuliffe is an ‘outsider’, even though he has made significant investments in Virginia, what does that make Cuccinelli, a man who has used his office to aggrandize his own bank account, pursue his own ideological aims, and to run for Virginia’s governorship?

Whether or not Cuccinelli is an ‘insider’ or an ‘outsider’ is really beside the point, though. Cuccinelli is as toxic to the state of Virginia as the greenhouse gases which he denies are a factor in the planet’s warming. 

This is not someone Virginia wants or needs as their next governor. 

Cuccinelli continues his attempts to define McAuliffe as an outsider for following market principles

In his latest you-can-only-make-money-as-long-as-its-in-Virginia criticism of Democratic Party candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign seems adamant about wrapping the ‘outsider’ mantel around the former’s shoulders.

The “attack” came Friday while the favorite for Virginia’s Republican Party nomination was attending an economic development conference in Charlottesville, the 2013 Virginia Economic Developers Association Spring Conference. His leading opponent, Terry McAuliffe, a successful businessman himself, was also at the conference.

Cuccinelli’s comments (can we please stop using the term “blasted” to describe political affronts?! Last I checked, no one has been hit with a high-power projectile) were in reference to a 2009 decision by Terry McAuliffe to establish an automotive plant, GreenTech Automotive, in Mississippi rather than Virginia.

After buying GreenTech Automotive from China over three years ago, the automotive plant and its 1,500 jobs were moved to Mississippi following a refusal by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to bid on the plant.

During a news conference in 2012, McAuliffe described the situation: “We had sites, we had meetings and they chose that they weren’t going to bid on it. I have to go where obviously they’re going to put incentives.”

The irony of the Cuccinelli campaign’s tar-and-feathering of McAuliffe for going where the incentives are should be apparent. Cuccinelli has preached free-market principles like a prophet of capitalism sent from on high only to turn around and criticize his political opponent for using those same principles (i.e., incentives) to create a profitable business.

Thus, Cuccinelli’s campaign is playing a dangerous political messaging game that could just as easily backfire on ‘Kook’ just as much as it could help him. After all, isn’t Cuccinelli implying that McAuliffe shouldn’t have followed the best business deal to establish his company? Why that would be akin to socialism (at least in the barely perceptible expansiveness of the Republican Party definition of ‘socialism’!!).

It seems to me that McAuliffe is the real embodiment of a 21^st Century American capitalist, one who believes and follows free-market principles while not forgetting about the community, the state, or the country that gave him the opportunity to thrive economically. That is, McAuliffe believes in giving back as much as taking.

Cuccinelli knows he won’t win on most fronts so he’ll continue to attempt to shape the image of McAuliffe as an ‘outsider’. The only problem for Cuccinelli is that this approach won’t work either.