Jeff Frederick Proves The Virginia GOP's Ongoing Racism

Despite the blather by some in the Republican Party that the GOP wants to attract non-whites and minorities, the truth is that the GOP, especially in Virginia, remains a white man's club - women are allowed too so long as they "know their place" and are subservient to men, especially in gynecological matters  - and those few blacks that are used for photo ops are the equivalent of the obsequious house servants of the antebellum South.  Lest we forget this reality, former Republican Party of Virginia chairman, Jeff Frederick, sought to remind us with a bust of spittle flecked batshitery in response to an innocuous tweet by the RNC aimed at blacks.  Blue Virginia looks at the brouhaha.  Here are highlights: 

[Jeff] Frederick [former Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia] is baaack, this time livid that the Republican National Committee (RNC) had the audacity to wish people "Happy Kwanzaa." Admittedly, I find it surprising the RNC would do that, since they're usually all about "War on Christmas" faux outrage, including their principled stance of NOT recognizing others who celebrate non-Christmas holidays this time of year. So it's hilarious to see former RPV chair (and former RNC member) Jeff Frederick going off on the RNC for celebrating a "made up holiday" (after first mocking the RNC, then being accused of racism by a Democrat, who Frederick claims is being a "tool of the hysterical left" - lol). Of course, the fact is that ALL holidays are "made up" by humans, pretty much by definition (e.g., we're humans, we're the ones who come up with culture, religion, custom, whatever). 

As for Kwanzaa, it was created in 1966 "as the first specifically African-American holiday, with the name deriving "from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning 'first fruits of the harvest.'" What on earth is wrong with that is beyond me, but apparently it set off the former chair of the Virginia Republican Party. From the responses on Twitter, it looks like it set off a bunch of other right-wingnuts as well (e.g., one wrote, "@GOP Kwanza. R U kidding? It was started by a communist convicted felon who beat and tortured women.")

Blue Virginia gets it right: ALL holidays - including Christmas and Easter - are made up by humans.  Moreover, the principal Christian holidays are remade versions of older pagan festivals and holidays that were hijacked by the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago.  Nonetheless, in today's white supremacist leaning Virginia GOP, only white Christian originated holidays count.

Bob McDonnell and "No Tax" GOP Behind Traffic Woes

Yesterday this area experienced a major clusterf*ck traffic wise because a simple pump failure in the west bound tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - one of the two main connectors between south side Hampton Roads and the Peninsula and Richmond to the west. Virginia increasingly needs major injections of transportation spending to improve its overburdened interstate highways and other main routes. Unfortunately, the GOP and its standard bearer Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell chant only one mantra: no tax increases. Highways do not build themselves without funding and a poor transportation system will ultimately strangle economic growth. But then, the Virginia GOP still has a 19th century mindset both in terms of social values - i.e., blacks and women new their place and gays were closeted or prosecuted for "crimes against nature" - and taxation. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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A broken water pump inside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel set off a chain reaction of congestion. On the surface, the broken pump seemed like a tiny cog in the area’s complex interstate bridge and tunnel system, but what happened next was more than anyone had bargained for.

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While Virginia Department of Transportation crews pumped water out of the tunnel, detouring vehicles spilled onto alternate routes. Traffic at the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel backed up more than 20 miles into Chesapeake. The Midtown and Downtown tunnel traffic was stacked up three to four miles into Norfolk, clogging city thoroughfares. The closures of some downtown streets for Harborfest compounded the fiasco.

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Local leaders and others expressed outrage over the way VDOT handled the crisis and called the gridlock a harbinger of what could happen during a major evacuation. They cited Thursday’s events as an example of a limited highway system and inadequate harbor crossings. “The entire region shut down for most of the day because of one pump,” Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said .

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Transportation, city and business leaders have pushed since the 1990s for transportation improvements to provide additional access to the region and better hurricane evacuation routes. Those projects include another crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor, expanding the Midtown Tunnel and upgrading U.S. 460 to interstate quality.

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But they will cost billions of dollars that current funding sources cannot cover. The General Assembly repeatedly has rejected proposals to raise taxes and fees for transportation funding. “We have listened to the members of the General Assembly long enough,” Fraim said. “The consequences of what has occurred is a direct result of their inaction to provide adequate funding for transportation.

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Fraim said the incident was reminiscent of Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, when the Midtown Tunnel flooded because of malfunctioning floodgates. “Had this occurred during an evacuation caused by an impending hurricane or major storm, I shudder to think of the consequences,” Fraim said.

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Virginia does not need the antiquated thinking of Bob McDonnell and the Virginia Republican Party. He and the other GOP candidates must be defeated in the November elections.

What Kind of Party Does Virginia GOP Want?

As I have alluded to a number of times before, I used to be an active Republican. As did most of my family going back for many years. That ended, however, a number of years back as the GOP both in Virginia and nationally lurched from being a party of moderate conservatives believing in fiscal conservatism and small government to a party of theocracy that sought to inflict a poisonous version of Christianity on all citizens. Many of the moderates in the Party that I once called home likewise have walked away from the GOP since their views on "social issues" as the extremists in the GOP call them became too unacceptable to the Kool-Aid drinkers who increasingly came to make up the party base. As someone who strongly believes in the separation of church and state there came to be no place for me in the as someone who is gay, I was no longer even welcome by the wingnuts and was widely disparaged as people in the party came to know that I had "come out." The final nail in the coffin is the fact that every anti-gay measure in Virginia over the last decade has been championed by the Republicans. The trend of driving away moderates or those who are not anti-abortion and anti-gay continues to this day. The Lynchburg New & Advance - the home town paper of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University - has a surprising editorial that looks at this phenomenon and suggest that unless this situation changes, the GOP can expect more election defeats. Here are some highlights:

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For the fifth time in as many years, there is a new state chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. . . . At just the point in time when state Republicans ought to be coalescing behind their presumptive gubernatorial nominee, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell, ahead of the November election, instead they’ve embarked on yet another battle in their ongoing civil war.

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At the heart of the divide in the Republican Party, both nationally and in Virginia, is the question of who is a true Republican. Is the party a big-tent party, welcoming people of divergent views on most topics but who fundamentally believe in small, efficient, unobtrusive government or is it a litmus-test party that strictly enforces ideological discipline? Guns, gay marriage, abortion … they’re all hot-button topics that invigorate a portion of the GOP base but turn off an increasingly large portion of the electorate.

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At one point in time not too long ago, the leaders of the party were people who believed that small, efficient government is better than large, bloated government; that taxes are necessary for government to provide citizens with the services for which it’s contractually obligated; that government should be loathe to interfere in the private lives of individuals; that government has a legitimate regulatory and oversight role in the economy.

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Today, far too many people who identify themselves as Republicans deride those who disagree with the party’s right as RINOs, “Republicans In Name Only.” . . . He’s just one in a long line of traditional conservatives who’ve run afoul of so-called “movement” conservatives, who believe it’s their way or the highway. And in the meantime, Republicans have taken drubbings in one election after another.

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Today, the Democrats have wised up and at least publicly don’t trash moderates. Republicans could learn a lesson or two from them, in that respect. When the Republicans will learn that lesson is anyone’s guess. If it’s not soon, then the bloodletting will only continue.

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Will the GOP learn this much needed lesson? I doubt it. The far right element within the party is utterly detached from the reality of a changing society. Anyone who doesn't support God, guns and gay bashing isn't likely to be welcome any time soon.

Ousted GOP Head Likely to Defy Party

Former Republican Party of Virginia chairman Jeff Frederick who was ousted from the top RPV slot over the weekend is the gift that keeps on giving. Not one to go quietly, the Washington Post is reporting that Frederick is making noises that he will stand for re-election for the chairmanship at the Party convention in May. Personally, nothing would make me happier than seeing the RPV tearing itself apart in a civil war that could act as a sea anchor of Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's effort to be elected as governor in November, 2009. From my days as a member of RPV, there is some merit to Frederick's complaint that some within the Party think that they rule the sand box and should be allowed to dictate to the rank and file members how to think and how to vote. On the other hand, Frederick is part of the loony far right element in the party that has turned the GOP into a quasi-religious party - something that caused me to leave the GOP nearly a decade ago. Here are some highlights on the ongoing intra-party fight:

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Ousted Virginia Republican leader Jeffrey M. Frederick said Monday he will probably run for party chairman again in May, setting up another clash with the GOP's gubernatorial nominee, Robert F. McDonnell, as Republicans struggle to unite for the November election.

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Frederick, 33, a conservative delegate from Prince William County, acknowledged that his pursuit of the party chairmanship could distract from McDonnell's campaign. But Frederick blamed McDonnell and other Republican elected officials for intervening. "What they need to figure out is, they are not the party," Frederick said. "I'm sick of things being run from the top down."

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The State Central Committee is expected to select Pat Mullins, Louisa County's Republican chairman, or Alexandra Liddy Bourne of Fairfax, an unsuccessful House candidate, as the party leader May 2. But party rules require the election of a chairman four weeks later at the Republican state convention May 30. There, 8,000 to 10,000 activists are expected to gather in Richmond to unite behind McDonnell.

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Frederick would not comment on whether he is considering an alternative post, such as a third-party bid for governor or other elected office.

Republican Party sends last minute anti-gay, anti-Muslim mailer

Virginia is such a wonderful place. I mean, where else can you run for office, not address the real issues confronting the state, and just demonize your opponent and other citizens. Virginia State Senate candidate Jill Holtzman Vogel has joined other GOP sleaze bags and a mailer, with anti-gay and anti-Muslim overtones, is being sent by the Republican Party of Virginia on behalf of her campaign. The cards were sent to arrive in mailboxes less than one week prior to election day, November 6th, and after the endorsements of the areas largest papers. PageOneQ has the following highlights (http://pageoneq.com/news/2007/Republican_Party_sends_last_minute_antigay_antiMus_1102.html):

The mailer attacks Vogel's opponent Karen Schultz, criticizing her "liberal record" and usage of "image consultants" and "slick mailings." It goes on to highlight other candidates her consulting firm has supported, specifically writing about a Muslim man and a lesbian woman. Holtzman Vogel is running on a "pro-family" platform to represent Virginia's 27th district in the State Senate, garnering the support of the Virginia Conservative Action PAC and Laurie Letourneau, founder of Mass Voices for Traditional Marriage during her residence in Massachusetts. Letourneau left Massachusetts after it affirmed equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Meanwhile, Holtzman Vogel's husband Alex's lobbying firm has been paid $510,000 in the past three years, according to the US Senate's US Lobby Registration & Reporting Disclosure Page, lobbying for LGBT-friendly media giant Viacom.

I had an e-mail exchange some time back with Ms. Letourneau, and believe me, the woman needs serious medication. If Holtzman Vogel is in bed with Letourneau, she is a nut job herself.

On a related note, I previously posted about a GOP candidate that was misleading voters on his opponent's position on sex education. When I challenged the Republican Party of Virginia on it, I was advised by RPV via e-mail to my office e-mail address that (1) the mailer was "accurate factually," which it was not and (2) that the "sentiments accurately reflected the opinion of the members of the GOP in Virginia." Why the Log Cabin Republicans continue to work for a party that would happily exterminate them baffles me. The only way this crap will end is to have the GOP utterly crushed to a minority status so that either the Party ditches the wingnuts and Christianist or it remains in the minority permanently.

Final Tuesday Male Beauty - Dedicated to Jay O'Brien and RPV

Virginia GOP Candidate Resorts to Gay Bashing

Under pressure in a race that appears “too close to call”, Senate incumbent Jay O’Brien (R-Clifton) - pictured at left (who looks like a Larry Craig wanna be to me) - this week succumbed to the temptation of using gay-bashing as a political tactic. O'Brien sent voters in his district mail that distorts comments made by challenger George Barker at a candidate forum hosted by Equality Fairfax and sponsored by Equality Virginia.

O'Brien's literature, which was paid for by the Republican Party of Virginia, claims that Barker wants to “teach children to accept the Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Lifestyle,” and that he wants to "force public schools" to teach "alternative lifestyles" over the objections of parents.

In fact, Barker's comments were supportive of age appropriate family life education (from which any parent may opt his/her children out), high school clubs that support equal treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and Virginia's participation in a nationwide Center for Disease Control survey that seeks to document risky behavior by teens.

Anyone who finds this trash offensive may want to drop their comments to Mr. O'Brien (Go to: http://www.jayobrienforsenate.org/contact_us.php) and/or the Republican Party of Virginia (Go here: http://www.rpv.org/contact.html) Believe me, I have.