Can the Virginia GOP Escape From Crazy Land?

RVP extremist John Whitbeck

As it gathers for the so-called "Republican Advance" - an event the Richmond Times Dispatch describes as "a holiday fundraising soiree where party notables, aspiring candidates and GOP operatives share a cup of wassail" - many wonder if the Virginia GOP has learned anything from its losses in 2013 and Ed Gilespie's defeat back in November.  In my view, the answer is a resounding "No."   Moreover, despite the fact that Bill Bolling (who unlike Ken Cuccinelli was electable) has tried to steer the Virginia GOP back toward sanity, the more likely trend is for the party to veer off into even deeper insanity, especially if The Family Foundation and Tea Party elements have their way.  The Richmond Times Dispatch looks at Bolling's efforts. Here are excerpts:

The annual gathering also offers an early glimpse at potential statewide candidates jockeying for position to run in 2017.

None of the party’s last three statewide officeholders — former Gov. Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, or Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli are expected at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles.

Cuccinelli, who lost the race for governor to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, will be in Richmond for the dedication of the Commonwealth Public Safety Memorial, honoring 870 Virginia first responders who died in the line of duty.

McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September on federal corruption charges. The former governor has maintained a low public profile since the trial, pending his sentencing Jan. 6.

Bolling also will not be on hand — but the Hanover Republican has plenty to say about where the party is and where it needs to go to make future Advances seem less like retreats.   Bolling even took out a full-page ad in the Advance sponsorship booklet urging unity.  “This is a challenging time for our party, but if we work hard, smart and together, we can rebuild the Republican Party and once again earn the right to lead Virginia,” it reads.

He [Bolling] said some of the current leadership of the party is “in denial” that it needs a course correction despite losing the six statewide elections since Republicans McDonnell, Bolling and Cuccinelli swept to victory in 2009.

“Believe it or not, after losing two close statewide elections,” for governor in 2013 and U.S. Senate this year, “my sense of grass-roots Republicans is that they have an attitude of ‘we can do this,’ not any sense of defeatism,” Cuccinelli said in an email. “That bodes well going forward.”

Nominating candidates that “light the ideological fires of the farthest right wing of the party is fine, but those candidates aren’t going to win,” said Bolling.

Meanwhile, a piece in Blue Virginia looks at the insane likely next head of the Republican Party of a Virginia, an anti-Semite and far right extremist:

The race to lead the Republican Party of Virginia is all but settled and somehow, Virginia Republicans see no issues with elevating one of the most polarizing and insensitive figures in the Commonwealth. They couldn't find a single candidate more qualified than John Whitbeck, whose unique brand of extremism, obstructionism and of course, anti-Semitism shows Virginia Republicans couldn't be less interested in working to move Virginia forward. 

"It says a lot about Virginia Republicans that they would welcome as chair someone as extreme as John Whitbeck," said Morgan Finkelstein, press secretary for the Democratic Party of Virginia. "From his offensive anti-Semitic comments to his extreme positions opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest, Whitbeck blatantly puts his ideological Tea Party agenda ahead of the citizens of Virginia. By backing someone so polarizing, the Republican Party of Virginia is sending a clear signal that they're only interested in being the party of 'no.'"

From his offensive positions to his far-right friends, John Whitbeck represents a major step in the Tea Party takeover of the RPV.

With voices like these leading the Republican Party of Virginia, it's no wonder that even hard-line conservatives are finding that they're not right-wing enough. Tea Party extremist Susan Stimpson has already announced a primary challenge to Speaker Bill Howell, Dan Moxley is primarying Senator Emett Hanger and of course, David Brat has already replaced Eric Cantor in Congress. John Whitbeck's rise to Chair is further proof that Virginia Republicans are bolting to the right wing extremes.

McAuliffe Maneuvers to Cast the GOP as the "Party of No"

Despite the good feelings - at least among rational, equality supporting people - from yesterday's inaugural events in Richmond, the newly sworn in Democrat leaders will face a huge obstacle: the House of Delegates controlled by GOP extremists who take their marching orders from the theocrats and racists at The Family Foundation.  Some of the GOP delegates are so extreme that it's a wonder they do not come to the General Assembly garbed in KKK sheets and hoods.  Understanding this reality, Terry McAuliffe has begun to frame the debate to depict the Virginia GOP as the "party of no."  The Washington Post looks at McAuliffe's positioning.  Here are excerpts:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s emphasis on bipartisanship in his inaugural address Saturday had the convenient, partisan effect of giving him the upper hand, at least temporarily, over his Republican adversaries in Richmond.

The speech, not soaring but smartly written, included more than a dozen appeals to finding “common ground” or otherwise setting politics aside for the greater good. It reinforced the message sent with McAuliffe’s selection of a moderate, diverse Cabinet, in which he retained his Republican predecessor’s secretaries of health, agriculture and finance.

In addition, McAuliffe (D) adopted the shrewd strategy of using noncontroversial, mainstream arguments to push for liberal measures. For him, expanding Medicaid and guaranteeing equal rights for gays aren’t ideological causes. They’re necessary to attract business and create jobs.

The net result is to create headaches for the Virginia GOP. If McAuliffe can avoid overreaching, then the Republicans would risk being labeled obstructionists if they resist his agenda.

The GOP can easily block him if it chooses, because it enjoys a large majority in the House of Delegates. But gridlock would surely alienate Virginia voters, who don’t want Richmond to resemble Washington.

“We definitely understand we don’t want to be the ‘party of no,’ ” said a Republican legislative source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because relations with the new governor are delicate.

McAuliffe has been remarkably quick to seize an advantage, at least stylistically. Who would have thought a former Democratic National Committee chairman with no experience in Richmond would need only a few weeks to lay claim to standing for “the Virginia Way” of civility and bipartisanship?

[L]ooking at three main issues likely to dominate the session, McAuliffe starts with advantages on each.

Everybody seems to agree that the two parties will agree this session on tightening state ethics laws and improving mental-health services.

[T]he Democrats have an edge here because the issue arose owing to the scandal over gifts to former governor Bob McDonnell (R) and his family.

The Democrats also have the No. 1 advocate for mental-health reforms in Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath). He suffered a horrible personal tragedy when he was stabbed by his mentally disturbed son, who then committed suicide.

The GOP is determined to draw the line against accepting about $2 billion a year in federal money under President Obama’s health-care law to extend insurance to about 400,000 low-income Virginians.

McAuliffe is equally determined to push the issue, partly because it was a core promise of his campaign.
Although Obama’s health reforms are generally unpopular now, the governor has powerful allies. The state’s chambers of commerce and hospitals favor Medicaid expansion, because they don’t want to turn away money there for the asking.  McAuliffe was careful in the inaugural to back Medicaid expansion as a plus for economic development, saying twice it would help create jobs.

A major mystery now is how much energy McAuliffe will commit to seeking advances for immigrants, gay equality and women’s reproductive rights. He hinted in the speech that he’d be pushing on all those fronts, but how far will he go?  . . . . But public sentiment in Virginia has been moving in McAuliffe’s direction on such issues, and the Republican legislative leadership would prefer to avoid stirring up interest in some of them.

Is Ken Cuccinelli Losing the GOP Base?

The surprise endorsement of Terry McAuliffe by the Daily Press is only part of the bad news that (happily) seems to be surrounding Ken Cuccinelli.  A column in the conservative Richmond Times Dispatch looks at Cuccinelli's lagging fund raising, campaign staff disorganization and seeming loosening grip on much of the Virginia GOP base other than the Christofascists and their Tea Party first cousins.  The column also addresses Cuccinelli's stupidity in not resigning as Attorney General as has been the tradition for many decades.  Cuccinelli motivation is obvious: he wanted Virginia taxpayers to support his campaign by being able to draw a salary even while not doing his job.  As with so many of Cuccinelli's struggles, his situation traces to his extremism and overbearing ego.  Here are column highlights:

With 23 days until the election, urgency is an understatement for Cuccinelli. It’s not just that published polls show him badly trailing Terry McAuliffe. It’s that Cuccinelli — a candidate who, like no other Republican, was supposed to inspire the full-throated passions of the party’s conservative grass roots — is losing them.

To some degree, you see this in the polls. For example, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Republicans are less enthusiastic about Cuccinelli than Democrats are about McAuliffe. Eighty-three percent of Republicans support Cuccinelli, but 95 percent of Democrats back McAuliffe.

The statistical evidence is backed by the empirical: Republicans acknowledge they’re divided and dispirited . . .

The problems for Cuccinelli are operational as well as philosophical.  Well before a staff shake-up last month, there were signs the Cuccinelli organization was disorganized.

Cuccinelli faced a significant distraction of his own making: his day job as attorney general. It’s a post he’s used to affirm his tea party, culture-warrior bona fides for a national audience by going to federal court in unsuccessful efforts to stop federal health care reform and to jump-start Virginia’s ban on sodomy.

Unlike nearly all of his predecessors since the late 1950s, Cuccinelli refused to quit as chief lawyer once he was nominated to be chief executive. In keeping his taxpayer-supplied salary and health insurance, Cuccinelli gave Democrats an issue: that personal ambition rather than the public interest guide his actions as attorney general.

Cuccinelli is getting clobbered in fundraising. As a consequence, he is being outshouted on television.  McAuliffe, so far, has collected $20 million to Cuccinelli’s $12.4 million. Cuccinelli relies on lifelines from the Republican Governors Association. It’s given him nearly $8.5 million in cash and services. That’s about two-thirds of his current total, and it includes a fresh $500,000 at week’s end.

And while trying to figure out if any of this actually mobilizes the grass roots, Cuccinelli had an anxiety-provoking moment at the Family Foundation dinner last Saturday:  How to oppose the Washington shutdown as a threat to the Virginia economy — and, by implication, his political fortunes — without appearing to oppose the gala’s headliner, Sen. Ted Cruz? The Texas Republican is an architect of the shutdown, a Cuccinelli soul mate and a powerful figure to their shared tea party base.

This, by the Republican whom 46 percent of Virginians told the Quinnipiac poll they don’t consider honest and trustworthy.  Now whose campaign is on life support?

I don't want to get too over confident, but should Cuccinelli lose - hopefully badly - hopefully the Republican Party of Virginia will place blame where it belongs - with the extremists at The Family Foundation which helped engineer Cuccinelli's nomination, along with the rest of the GOP's extremist ticket.

4.Study: Conservative Legislators Live in a Fantasy World of Make-Believe

Click image to enlarge

This blog has long maintained that conservative politicians and their typically Christofascist puppet masters live in a fantasy world detached from objective reality.  Now, a new study suggest that such is in fact definitely the case with conservative - read Republican - legislators believing that their districts support far more reactionary policies than is actually the case.  Its a phenomenon here in Virginia that I suspect tracks directly to The Family Foundation and its insidious network of extremists who through threats and intimidation control the Republican Party of Virginia and distort the reality of the views of most Virginians (e.g., 90% of Virginians support LGBT workplace nondiscrimination protections, yet thanks to The Family Foundation's efforts, the GOP kills these measures ever year).  The Wonkblog looks at the study findings.  Here are excerpts:

Last year, a group of political scientists took a random sample of state legislators and asked them a slew of questions, most of which boiled down to: “What do your constituents think about policy?” Do they support gay marriage? Do they support Obamacare? Do they support action to combat global warming?

Broockman and Skovron find that legislators consistently believe their constituents are more conservative than they actually are. This includes Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. But conservative legislators generally overestimate the conservatism of their constituents by 20 points. “This difference is so large that nearly half of conservative politicians appear to believe that they represent a district that is more conservative on these issues than is the most conservative district in the entire country,” Broockman and Skovron write. This finding held up across a range of issues. 

Liberal legislators consistently overestimate opposition to same-sex marriage and universal health care, but only mildly. Conservative politicians are not even in the right ballpark.

Is it just that legislators don’t talk to their constituents? Nope. Broockman and Skovron tried and failed to find any relationship between the amount of time legislators spend in their districts, going to community events, and so forth, and the accuracy of their reads on their districts. And this bias afflicts not just their view of their constituents, but their positions generally.

[T]he data holds against a battery of robustness checks the authors threw at it. The finding on conservative legislators in particular is so large that it’s hard to imagine any subsequent research would completely overturn it. But if the findings hold, they suggest both that epistemic closure on the right is real and affects state-level policymaking, and that there is a systematic bias against liberal policies at the state level.

While it is disturbing to realize just how out of touch GOP legislators have become, it is nice to know that my belief that these people are in a fantasy world appears to be accurate.

Ken Cuccinelli and The GOP's Continued War on Virginia's Women

One can only hope that women in Virginia are paying attention to what Ken Cuccinelli and his fellow Republican theocrats are doing to women as they strive to inflict their own sex and abortion obsessed religious beliefs on all women.  The latest battle - which women lost - involved new clinic rules that were voted on by the Virginia Board of Health following Ken Cuccinelli's incessant attack against clinics providing any kind of abortion services.  The Cuccinelli/GOP effort has been to force the promulgation new rules that will in many instances cause such clinics to either close or under go expensive, unnecessary renovations.  It's all part and parcel with the GOP obsession to control every aspects of women's wombs.  What should women do?  Turn out on election day in mass and vote for Barack Obama and their local Democrat Congressional candidate to send a loud message to Cuccinelli and the GOP.  The Washington Post's main editorial looks at the batshitery being done by Cuccinelli.  Here are excerpts:

IN THREE YEARS as Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II (R) has demeaned his office by using it as a blatantly partisan bully pulpit to attack Obamacare, illegal immigrants, homosexuals and climate-change scientists. Now he has managed to bully Virginia’s Board of Health into a stance — unprecedented in state history — that could force most of the commonwealth’s 20 or so abortion clinics to close.

Mr. Cuccinelli, who was a champion of the anti-abortion movement as a legislator, has clung to his current office even as he runs for governor. In doing so, he ignores the example of former Virginia attorneys general of both parties who resigned to run rather than politicize the office. In the Cuccinelli worldview, rendering dispassionate legal advice takes a back seat to agenda-pushing. 
 
[H]e threatened members of the state Board of Health last week, warning that they might have to bear the cost of their own legal defense unless they toed his line on abortion regulations. That gambit bore fruit a few days later when the board, evidently intimidated, reversed a position it had taken in June and voted to impose severe new regulations on abortion clinics, where most of Virginia’s 25,000 annual abortions take place.

The opening for Mr. Cuccinelli’s war on abortion came when Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) signed GOP-sponsored legislation last year to reclassify abortion clinics so they are treated as hospitals, which are subject to exacting standards governing the width of hallways and doorways, the size of operating rooms, numbers of parking spots — even the types of sinks and water fountains. Sponsors of the legislation — which does not apply to other outpatient clinics performing plastic surgery or oral surgery, for instance — were intent on shutting down abortion clinics, many of which would be unable to afford retrofitting. 

[I]mplementation of the new regulations is the purview of the health board, which had never elected to impose new regulations on existing venues. In June, the board voted 7 to 4 to exempt existing clinics.

That prompted Mr. Cuccinelli to resort to strong-arm tactics, first by threatening he would not certify the new regulations, then by warning that his office, which acts as the lawyer for state agencies and boards, might refuse to represent members of the board of health who were sued if they failed to heed his advice.
 
The Board of Health buckled, voting 13 to 2 last week to reverse its position. If that decision survives a public comment period and review by Mr. McDonnell, Virginia will be known for two things — the nation’s most draconian anti-abortion regulations and its most politicized attorney general’s office.

In my view, Cuccinelli is nothing short of insane.  It's also interesting that he's obsessed with women's sexual matters since I continue to receive as yet unconfirmed reports that Mr. Cuccinelli likes to suck dick - just like so many other flaming self-loathing homophobes.  Needless to say, nothing would make me happier than to confirm such reports and take this menace to Virginia down.

Global Warming: Cope with Flooding From Storms, Tides, and Sea Level Rise

Even though Republicans at both the national and state level here in Virginia pretend that global warming is just a myth, those of us who aren't drinking Kool-Aid and are observing objective facts easily know that something is happening.  And it's not something good for our future and life they way that we know it.  This week Hampton Roads got a good dose of reality check when severe storms with heavy moved through in coordination with a full moon (which increases tide levels) and high tide.  Many of the local cities experienced significant flooding in areas with parts of Norfolk, Newport News, and Hampton perhaps hardest hit.  The image above is from about 6 blocks from my office in the Ghent area of Norfolk. As the Virginian Pilot reports, Norfolk - despite its lack of forward thinking on many fronts - is at at least trying to come up with a plan to contend with the reality of global warming and its consequences.  Here are some article excerpts:

Plentiful rainfall in a short period of time, combined with the 7 p.m. high tide, left standing water throughout the city, according to Alice Kelly, assistant director of public works. .  .  .  .  This has become the weather du jour in Norfolk, and some experts say it is more than a passing trend. Either way, the city is planning for the worst.

Pinpointing what causes flooding in Norfolk is tricky, with factors varying from storm to storm. High tides, the phase of the moon, the gradual sinking of Norfolk, intense storms and sea level rise all contribute. In 2008, the EPA ranked Norfolk second only to New Orleans among East and Gulf Coast cities most threatened by flooding.

The city has proposed large-scale flood-mitigation projects, focusing on areas such as Pretty Lake, the Hague, Ohio Creek and Mason's Creek. The U.S. Senate recently authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to undertake a $100,000 feasibility and environmental impact study of the plans. The work will build on a study that the city has already commissioned.

The city acknowledges it won't be an easy or inexpensive fix. Norfolk can't move any higher above sea level, so it must find a way to keep out water or pump it elsewhere. Preliminary studies indicate that it could cost $58.6 million to build a flood wall and pump station at the Hague and $46.4 million for a similar project at Pretty Lake. A pump station and dredging at Mason's Creek could cost as much as $30 million.

Paige Rose, president of the Ghent Neighborhood League, said she left the City Council meeting Tuesday to find herself in the middle of the storm. Then, she said, she parked four blocks away from her home to protect her vehicle, which meant wading shoeless through 2 feet of water.

While the article focuses on Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News likewise have serious problems.  On my way home from work one of the major through fares I typically drive was under water.  Back in Norfolk, my daughter (who lives in my house there) said that the entire street in front of the house was covered in water although the house was high and dry - and that's in one of the higher parts of the city.  Will the GOP wake up to reality or keep drinking the Kool-Aid?

Roll Call Vote on Tracy Thorne-Begland Judgeship

UPDATED 5-16-12:  My Google search agent shows that this story is going viral around the USA and overseas.  I hope Bob Marshall and his fellow theocrats are happy that they've made Virginia a worldwide laughingstock. 

I noted earlier today how the Virginia House of Delegate rejected Tracy Thorne-Begland's nomination for a General District Court judgeship based solely on his sexual orientation and refusal to be a self-loathing closet case.  The Richmond Times Dispatch has a role call vote on trashing Thorne-Begland.   Several things are noteworthy: (1) of the "yes" votes, all were by Democrats except for seven Republicans; (2) all of the "No" votes were Republican, (3) all of abstentions were by Republicans - who apparently sought to avoid - documenting their bigotry; (4) seven of the 26 "not-voting" were cowardly Democrats, while the rest were Republicans embarrassed by their party's blatant anti-gay bigotry who were afraid to anger the Christofascists at The Family Foundation.   Obviously, had the cowards of both parties, Thorne-Begland would have been confirmed.   Here's the results from the Times-Dispatch:

Here is the roll call vote in the House of Delegates early Tuesday on Tracy Thorne-Begland, Richmond's chief deputy commonwealth's attorney, who was rejected for a judgeship in general district court. Thorne-Begland received 33 yea votes and 31 delegates voted against him. He needed a majority of the chamber -- 51 votes, to be elected.

Yeas (33)
 
David B. Albo, R-Fairfax
Kenneth C. Alexander, D-Norfolk
Mamye E. BaCote, D-Newport News
David L. Bulova, D-Fairfax
Betsy B. Carr, D-Richmond
Barbara J. Comstock, R-Fairfax
Rosalyn R. Dance, D-Petersburg
Peter F. Farrell, R-Henrico
Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax
Charniele L. Herring, D-Alexandria
Patrick A. Hope, D-Arlington
Algie T. Howell, D-Norfolk
Matthew James, D-Portsmouth
Mark L. Keam, D-Fairfax
Terry G. Kilgore, R-Scott
L. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax
James M. LeMunyon, R-Fairfax
Lynwood W. Lewis Jr., D-Accomack
Alfonso H. Lopez, D-Arlington
G. Manoli Loupassi, R-Richmond
Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond
Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond
Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico
Thomas Davis Rust, R-Fairfax
James M. Scott, D-Fairfax
Mark D. Sickles, D-Fairfax
Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake
Scott A. Surovell, D-Fairfax
Luke Torian, D-Prince William
David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville
Jeion A. Ward, D-Hampton
Vivian E. Watts, D-Fairfax
Joseph A. Yost, R-Montgomery

Nays (31)

Richard L. Anderson, R-Prince William
Richard P. "Dickie" Bell, R-Staunton
Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle
Kathy J. Byron, R-Campbell
Benjamin L. Cline, R-Rockbridge
Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania
John A. Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake
John A. Cox, R-Hanover
L. Mark Dudenhefer, R-Stafford
James E. Edmunds II, R-Halifax
C. Matthew Fariss, R-Campbell
T. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg
Thomas A. "Tag" Greason, R-Loudoun
Gordon C. Helsel Jr., R-Poquoson
M. Keith Hodges, R-Middlesex
Timothy D. Hugo, R-Fairfax
Salvatore R. Iaquinto, R-Virginia Beach
Barry D. Knight, R-Virginia Beach
L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William
Daniel W. Marshall III, R-Danville
Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William
Jimmie Massie, R-Henrico
Donald W. Merricks, R-Pittsylvania
James W. "Will" Morefield, R-Tazewell
Brenda L. Pogge, R-James City
Charles D. Poindexter, R-Franklin County
David I. Ramadan, R-Loudoun
Roxann L. Robinson, R-Chesterfield
Ron Villanueva, R-Virginia Beach
Michael B. Watson, R-Williamsburg
Tony O. Wilt, R-Rockingham

Abstensions (10)

M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights
Anne B. Crockett-Stark, R-Wythe
Riley E. Ingram, R-Hopewell
R. Steven Landes, R-Augusta
Israel D. O'Quinn, R-Bristol
Lacey E. Putney, I-Bedford
Larry N. Rush, R-Montgomery
Edward T. Scott, R-Madison
Beverly J. Sherwood, R-Frederick
Chris Stolle, R-Virginia Beach

Not voting (26)

Robert H. Brink, D-Arlington
David L. Englin, D-Alexandria
C. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah
Gregory D. Habeeb, R-Salem
Christopher T. Head, R-Roanoke
William J. Howell, R-Stafford
Johnny S. Joannou, D-Portsmouth
Joseph P. Johnson Jr., D-Washington County
S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk
Joe T. May, R-Loudoun
Jackson H. Miller, R-Manassas
J. Randall "Randy" Minchew, R-Leesburg
Richard L. Morris, R-Isle of Wight
John M. O'Bannon III, R-Henrico
Robert D. Orrock Sr., R-Caroline
Christopher K. Peace, R-Hanover
Kenneth R. Plum, D-Fairfax
Harry R. Purkey, R-Virginia Beach
Margaret B. Ransone, R-Westmoreland
Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach
Roslyn C. Tyler, D-Sussex
Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke
R. Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan
Michael J. Webert, R-Fauquier
Thomas C. Wright Jr., R-Lunenberg
David E. Yancey, R-Newport News

Here is the statement released by Senator Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) on the Virginia General Assembly's failure to appoint Tracy Thorne-Begland to the Richmond District Court:

"Tracy Thorne-Begland is a highly qualified and exceptionally competent prosecutor, who also served our country with honor as a Navy pilot. The blatant prejudice that Republicans displayed last night should have no place in our government. The GOP took Virginia back to the bigotry and mean-spirited prejudice of the 1960s. I thought we had made more progress toward a just society than this.

"The only criteria legislators should apply when selecting judges are that person's ability to fairly and impartially weigh the law. Mr. Thorne-Begland's qualifications for appointment to the bench were unimpeachable, but Republicans cynically voted against his appointment just because he was gay," said Senator McEachin.

Once again, I find myself embarrassed to be a resident of Virginia.  I suspect this latest case of religious based hate and bigotry is being watched around the world and the Virginia GOP just cased Virginia to be stricken from the list of possible relocation sites by many corporations and businesses

George Zimmerman’s Crumbling Story - Why Did Police High Ups Believe It At All?

Living in the South since the early 1970's there's one thing you learn quickly: racism is very much alive and well in many quarters, including law enforcement and civic political leadership. In Virginia, I'd argue that this racism extends all the way to the top of the Virginia GOP. Hence the importance of The Family Foundation which uses social and religious issues to cause blacks to carry water for those who in truth miss the days of segregation. The murder of Tryvon Martin suggests that similar mind sets are alive and well in Sanford, Florida, and at least portions of the Florida state government. Why else would George Zimmerman's increasingly fantasy version of what happened with Tryvon Martin have been believed? The sad truth is that in the eyes of some, certain lives don't matter or at least not very much: black lives and to a lesser extent here in Virginia, LGBT lives. A piece in the Washington Post looks at this rapidly unraveling story and raises some serious questions. Here are highlights:

The killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman — the case where nothing makes sense, nothing — gained greater clarity in the past couple days. The story put forth by the Sanford Police Department (SPD) and by Zimmerman “friend” Joe Oliver is starting to crumble.

The SPD video that ABC News aired last night raised serious doubts about Zimmerman’s account of a life-and-death struggle. Then, the mortician who prepared Trayvon’s body for burial told MSNBC last night that the 17-year-old’s body didn’t show any signs of violence to support Zimmerman’s account. Now, the work of the lead detective on the Zimmerman case looms large. Justice might be blind, but she’s not dumb. And lead detective Investigator Chris Serino set out to prove it.

Serino didn’t believe Zimmerman’s version of events and recommended a manslaughter charge. But he was overruled. And according to a report from Joy-Ann Reid of the Grio yesterday, the decision came from atop the law enforcement food chain: the state attorney.

A source with knowledge of the investigation into the shooting of Trayvon Martin tells the Grio that it was then Sanford police chief Bill Lee, along with Capt. Robert O’Connor, the investigations supervisor, who made the decision to release George Zimmerman on the night of February 26th, after consulting with State Attorney Norman Wolfinger — in person.

Wolfinger told Serino that he didn’t think there was enough evidence to charge Zimmerman. According to ABC News, Serino then filed an affidavit the night of Feb. 26 stating he didn’t believe Zimmerman. And we are now finding out that Serino then set out to bring the neighborhood watch volunteer to justice.

[Tracy] Martin told us in a meeting yesterday at The Post that he asked Serino if a background check was done on Zimmerman. Yes, one was, he was told, and he was “squeaky clean.” But Martin had another question. “By Zimmerman being ‘squeaky clean,’ ” he wanted to know, “did that give him the right to shoot and kill my son?” What Martin said Serino said next fits an emerging pattern. “[H]e said it certainly didn’t. That he was going to do everything that he could do to catch this guy in a lie.”

Despite being overruled by superiors, Serino, it appears, never gave up on trying to have Zimmerman arrested. He filed that affidavit hours before delivering the tragic news to Martin and said what he would try to do. And it wasn’t until March 5 that he would pay the 13-year-old and his mother a visit. Serino felt he was onto something. And now we all know why with greater clarity than we did a week ago.

Virginia Business Revolt Over Virginia GOP's Culture Wars Agenda

I have noted any number of times that the Republican Party of Virginia - and its Christianist puppet masters - fails to grasp the fact that low taxes are not the only prerequisite to making Virginia a business friendly state and a place that businesses would consider as a possible relocation venue. Key to any business relocation is the ability to (i) retain key personnel and (ii) attract new talent/employees. States and regions that are socially backwards and intolerant of minorities, gays and non-traditional thinking - Southwest Virginia is a prime example - are simply NOT deemed attractive to progressive and innovative companies and businesses no matter how low the tax rate. Now, a number of Virginia businesses have written a letter to Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell (pictured above with the ever slimy Eric Cantor) and the members of the General Assembly demanding that he and the Virginia GOP cease their culture war against women, gays and modernity in general. Why? Because it is hurting their businesses. Here are highlights from the letter via Blue Virginia:

As business leaders and employers in Virginia we applaud your successful bi-partisan efforts to keep Virginia first in national rankings as the most business-friendly state.

We urge you to maintain this ranking going forward by ensuring Virginia is a magnet for the best and the brightest employees and entrepreneurs.

Specifically, we urge you to reject extreme proposals governing social issues on which Americans are passionately divided. Otherwise it will be difficult for Virginia to attract and retain the entrepreneurs and talent we need to grow Virginia.

A full list of the signatories of the letter can be viewed at the Blue Virginia link.

This current session of the Virginia General Assembly has made Virginia a national laughing stock and made most Americans likely view Virginia as peopled by Bible beating extremists who want to take the state back to the Middle Ages. One can only hope that Taliban Bob and some of the Virginia GOP Kool-Aid drinkers will open their ears and listen.

Will the Virginia GOP's Anti-Gay Adoption Bill Come Back to Bite Them

The hate merchants at The Family Foundation - Virginia's affiliate to Focus on the Family and Family Research Council, a registered hate group - and its prostitute like puppets in the Republican Party of Virginia have been gleefully celebrating the anti-gay adoption bill that was rammed through the Virginia General Assembly last week. Some suggest that this example of GOP arrogance and overreaching may come back to bite the Christofascists as early as November when sane and moderate Virginians may retaliate by voting against GOP candidates. But, as Timothy Kincaid suggests at Box Turtle Bulletin, the provisions in the bill that allow religious based discrimination could ultimately be used against Christianists seeking to adopt. Polls show that among the larger public, few groups are viewed as negatively as the Christian Right. It would be all to sweet to have some uber-Christians denied adoption and/or foster care placements due to their extremism. Here are highlights of Kincaid's analysis:

Anti-gay activists in Virginia are dancing with delight. They stood up to Teh HomoSEXshull Agenduh and showed them librulls that they don’t cotton to Teh Ghey so much in the Old Dominion State. The Virginia Senate Republicans, who have a strong majority in that red red state, just passed a bill allowing adoption agencies to deny access to gay couples or individuals on religious grounds.

Except, of course, they couldn’t just say “No gays! We hate ‘em” so they couched their bill in language of “religious freedom”. And in their arrogance, they never stopped to consider how else this bill could be used. Look at the wording:

No private child-placing agency shall be required to consider or consent to any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would conflict with the religious tenets of any sponsor of the agency or other organization or institution with which the child-placing agency is affiliated or associated. The Commissioner shall not deny an application for an initial license or renewal of a license or revoke the license of a private child-placing agency solely on the grounds that the agency has refused to consider or consent to any placement of a child for foster care or adoption in such cases. Refusal of a private child-placing agency to consider or consent to any placement of a child pursuant to this section shall not form the basis of any claim for damages. [emphasis added]

Now I’m sure that all those good ol’ Southern Baptist boys thought that this gave them the power to discriminate. It did. . . . . But it also empowered others to find that certain cultural views are repressive and dangerous to children and that their faith prohibits the exposure of children to that element. For example, Quakers may find that military families are unfit based on their religious beliefs. . . . And we know that Mormons will be automatically disqualified from most taxpayer-funded but church-administered adoption or fostering programs.

If your entire faith system consists of nothing more than “I hate those people over there”, I promise you that you can find others who agree and who will happily join together, form a church, and say that God told them so. Only a pack of fools would look at that reality and decide that the widely ranging, vastly differing, and often irrational beliefs and rules about a subject which is, by its very nature, unknowable is the basis on which adoption and fostering policy would be based.

And let’s be real. Who works in the child advocacy field, anyway? Sure, there are a few good family-first quote Leviticus fire-brands, but it’s mostly a bunch of bleeding heart liberals. And you know, you just know, that the real losers in this deal are going to be the idiots who just voted for the thing.

Let's hope that anti-Christianist bias grows and this law ends up being used against them. Or at least until it gets struck down as unconstitutional.

Cuccinelli Wants to Intervene in Virginia Primary Ballot Dispute

Speaking of delusional Republicans, here in Virginia it often seems to be a race for who can be the most crazy and most supportive of theocracy. Two of the main contenders are current attorney general Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli and Del. Bob Marshall, the later having introduced a "personhood" bill for the coming General Assembly session. Apparently, not wanting to be over looked, Kookinelli is looking to jump into the GOP primary ballot dispute which is poised to keep Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich off the ballot since they failed to get their respective acts together and get sufficient signatures to be placed on the ballot. Kookinelli always wants to be in the limelight, so it's a good guess that he doesn't give a rat's ass about Perry or Gingrich but sees the dispute as a way to keep his name in the press and on the lips of the increasingly untethered from reality stalwarts of the Republican Party of Virginia. The Virginian Pilot looks at Kookinelli's efforts at self-promotion. Here are highlights:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Saturday that he favors emergency legislation to allow more Republican presidential candidates on Virginia’s primary ballot. “Hundreds of thousands of Virginians who ought to be able to have their choice among the full field of presidential primary contenders now only have a choice among two,” he said. “Virginia owes her citizens a better process.”

Virginia’s ballot-access requirements have come under scrutiny after state GOP officials recently determined former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to submit petitions bearing 10,000 valid voter signatures, disqualifying them from the primary.

Fox News Channel reported that his proposal would allow candidates who fell short of the signature requirement onto the ballot if the Virginia State Board of Elections certifies that they are qualified to receive federal matching funds – public money offered to candidates who meet certain requirements demonstrating broad public support. The change would allow all the major presidential candidates onto the ballot.

Later Saturday, Cuccinelli said, “Any proposal is still in flux. Some sort of requirement for ballot access – such as candidates being eligible to receive presidential election campaign federal matching funds – is still needed, whether for 2012 or beyond.”

The General Assembly would need to hold a special session this week to pass the legislation in time for the printing of primary ballots, . . . Emergency legislation must gather a supermajority of four-fifths votes from the House of Delegates and the Senate, according to the state constitution.

McDonnell is open to last-minute efforts to reform the state’s primary ballot requirements, his spokesman Tucker Martin said Saturday. But Martin questioned why most of the GOP presidential candidates failed to meet the state’s long-standing ballot requirements.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Romney supporter, said changing the ballot requirements now would be unfair to the candidates who gathered enough signatures. Bolling, who will be running against Cuccinelli for the Republican nomination for governor in 2013, said any changes to the ballot rules should wait until future elections. “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game just because you don’t like the result,” Bolling said.

Perry filed a lawsuit to have his name added to the ballot, but a U.S. District Court judge scheduled a hearing in that case for Jan. 13, four days after the ballots are to be printed.

Perry’s campaign applauded Cuccinelli in a statement Saturday: “Virginia’s onerous and restrictive ballot access rules do create serious constitutional problems and undermine the rights of citizens and candidates.”

Also Saturday, lawyers for Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum joined Perry in asking the Board of Elections and the Republican Party of Virginia to be added to the presidential ballot.

Virginia's requirements have been around for many years. Hence, one has to wonder why so many candidates - or their campaigns - were so incompetent as to not get the required signatures. If they cannot even handle getting on a ballot, do we want them in the White House?

Virginia HIV Services - Make Your Voice Heard!

I received an e-mail today from a friend in the Virginia Department of Health reminding message recipients of the need to speak out in support of adequate funding for services for HIV/AIDS services and ADAP funding. The Virginia General Assembly commences the 2012 session on January 11, 2012. Faced with a Republican controlled Legislature filled with GOP demagogues like Del. Bob Marshall and his fellow extremists who would like LGBT citizens to disappear from Virginia, I cannot urge Virginians enough of the need to contact your members of the House of Delegates and the Senate. Rest assured that Victoria Cobb and the hate merchants at The Family Foundation will be speaking out. It is essential to counter the virulent anti-gay rhetoric that members of the General Assembly will be hearing from the Christianists and Tea Party followers. Here are highlights from the e-mail which includes locations for public hearings:

Every year the Virginia General Assembly holds hearings “to hear from the public” on what services should be funded in the new Biennial Budget. Today we are reading the Governor’s Proposed Biennial Budget to learn if there are any new funds to eliminate the ADAP waiting list. So far, doesn’t look like it … in fact, I’m a bit concerned … could there actually be less ??

Plan to attend any one of these hearings to tell our legislators why HIV medications must be available to every PLWH in this state.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2012 (Hearing begins at 10:00 a.m.)
Big Stone Gap (directions)
Mountain Empire Community College, Philip Taylor Hall, Goodloe Center

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2012
(Hearing begins at 10:00 a.m.)
Fairfax County (directions)
George Mason University, Fairfax Campus, Johnson Center, Dewberry Hall

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2012
(Hearings begin at 12:00 noon)
Newport News (directions)
Christopher Newport University, Ferguson Center, Music and Theater Hall

Lexington (directions)
Virginia Military Institute, Marshall Center for Leadership and Ethics, Hall of Valor

Richmond (directions)
Medical College of Virginia, Larrick Student Center, 900 Turpin Street

Will Virginia Democrats Meet the Cuccinelli Threat?

A column in the Washington Post asks an important question in light of the recent confirmation that Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli intends to run for governor of Virginia in 2013: will Virginia Democrats get their shit together and take on Kookinelli head on and make sure he is defeated? As noted before, in my view Kookinelli is the Christianist version of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's totally crazy like Ahmadinejad and he's likewise an ego maniac. A very dangerous combination and something that ought to terrify every non-Christianist in Virginia of every race, creed and background. If Bob McDonnell has tried to move Virginia back to the 19th century, Kookinelli would strive to take Virginia back to the 11th century - with The Family Foundation in directly in charge of all social policy. The Democrats need to start the anti-Cuccinelli campaign now and help set the stage for Kookinelli and Bolling to mutually self-destruct. Here are some column highlights:

Ken Cuccinelli II’s announcement that he will run for Virginia governor in 2013 presages some interesting days ahead.

The controversial, hard-right attorney general has been a highly polarizing figure in state politics. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, he stubbornly insists that humans have little to do with climate change and has indulged in a months-long witchhunt against a former University of Virginia scientist who, like most of his colleagues in the civilized world, does see a link. Cuccinelli has trampled on gay rights by pushing to end legal protections against discrimination against gays in public universities. He has fought headlong against President Obama’s health-care reform, spending plenty of taxpayer money in the process.

Meanwhile, Cuccinelli hasn’t come up with much in the way of positive proposals or platforms. Perhaps that’s not his job as attorney general, but right now voters don’t have a clear idea what he’s for, only what he’s against. Given Cuccinelli’s obvious and robust reactionary ideas, it will be hard for him to remake himself into a moderate the way Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, once a hard-line social conservative, seems to have done.

The state GOP establishment has been pushing Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling as McDonnell’s successor, notably by calling him the “go to” guy on jobs. The fact is that Bolling is pleasant — and utterly forgettable.

Either way, the state’s Democrats badly need to get their act together. And fast. They are going to have to come up with a better candidate than Creigh Deeds, who was easily beaten by McDonnell last time.

The Democrats clearly need to find a candidate who is NOT from Southwest Virginia - the last three from both parties have lost. They also need to find a candidate who's not afraid to strongly campaign for a progressive agenda and who can put forth a vision for how Virginia can move prosperously into the future. Creigh Deeds was hopeless when it came to doing this and the Democrats need to not make the mistake of running someone who is basically a warmed over version of a weak, moderate Republican as the party's candidate again.

Will Virginia See a Renewed GOP Extremism?

As noted in the previous blog, Russia appears to be heading into an anti-gay jihad with its bans on the "propaganda of homosexuality." Will Virginia see something similar now that the Democrats have lost control of the Virginia senate? Things are already hostile enough for LGBT Virginians, but with Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling headed towards a contest of who can be more batshit crazy and reactionary (which will no doubt include anti-gay rhetoric), things may get even worse. Paul Goldman, a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, has a piece in Blue Virginia that looks at the extremism that may well sweep over Virginia as Kookinelli and Bolling launch their personal agendas to appeal to the foulest and most unhinged elements of the Republican Party of Virginia. I hope that Goldman is correct that these agendas will result in a backlash come 2013, if not before. Here are some highlights:

For most of the state's history, the AG's office was part-time, basically issuing legal opinions requested by local officials and taking care that no one in state government, much less the judiciary, might render some form of deed or action which questioned the legality, indeed the morality, of the state's infamous "Black Codes", the statutory basis of segregation.

Except when an AG got crosswise with either the sitting Governor or saw a good political opportunity to boost their future chances of being Governor, they mostly stayed out of the line of political fire, content to do their jobs and concentrate on how to move up the ladder.

Then came Ken [Cuccinelli]. From the moment he took office, KC and his not-so-Sunshine Band decided to go places AG's just had not gone before, even when pushed. Where other AG's had invariably waited to be asked for an opinion, Mr. Cuccinelli decided to skip the middle man and put pen to paper, starting with his letter saying however noble the intention, our colleges and universities didn't have the power to offer gay or other students any more legal protections than authorized by the General Assembly.

Soon his office was in hot pursuit of all things deemed to be Un-Cuccinelli. . . . . In a bold political move never tried, much less contemplated by a Virginia AG, the "Cooch" stiff-armed all the other state's attorneys general by filing his own suit against what he called "Obamacare," or I suppose "Obamaromneycare" in his eyes. KC found a friendly local U.S. District Court Judge, and before long, Mr. Cuccinelli had drawn first blood as Judge Henry Hudson gave Virginia's AG a big legal win, at least headline wise.

For the first time in Virginia's history, the Office of Attorney General had become a mini-governor in the legal realm, seeking out never-ending dragons of liberalism, even worse moderation, to slay. He became a conservative talk show guest icon, seemingly spending more time on the Fox channel and other such broadcasters of the true faith than with his family (or his job).

Given this reality - and Mr. Cuccinelli's attendant popularity in the GOP base - it perhaps was only a matter of time before rival Bill Bolling decided he needed to up the level of his game. . . . Bolling's advisors, Boyd Marcus and Ray Allen, don't scare from a fight. So they have convinced the LG to do something never before tried in state history: turn the LG into the second most powerful person in Virginia politics.

In a flip-flop that would make Mitt Romney blush, Mr. Bolling has gone from crying "foul" to "fair" when it comes to the constitutional power of the LG to....well... be amazingly powerful. Suddenly, contrary to what the GOP said only a few years ago, they now find the constitutional power to treat the LG as effectively a member of the Senate, sort of Super Senator despite direct language of the Constitution and several previous AG opinions.

In terms of practical, raw, political power, this means the 20 GOP Senators, as a block, will vote to give themselves all the power they legally can take and want, knowing such a move will at worst produce a 20-20 tie vote, leaving the matter to the tender mercies of the LG's decision. Presto! Suddenly, Bill Bolling, a man only moments ago with a small gavel like every previous LG, will suddenly wield the Hammer of Thor. As long as the 20 Republican Senators stick together, Bill Bolling gets to decide on the fate of legislation Democrats believe will turn Virginia from mainstream to extreme.

Bill and Kenny - their rivalry has led them to redefine their offices in some measure due to a desire to show the GOP faithful who is the true conservative change maker, willing to break the old rules to establish the new Kingdom. Governor McD has used the old traditions to try to become a new national conservative who can be trusted with the VEEP's job. But his two running buddies have chosen, as Robert Frost might have said, the Road Not Taken.

But you say: "Paul, the GOP will go crazy." If they do, then get ready for the 2013 backlash. Truth is, the first casualty of which could be Governor McDonnell, whose national rep is based on a different approach.

So fear not. Bolling and Cuccinelli might be eating their horses' oats now, feeling like Secretariat. But by 2013, they might be looking like a different part of the equine anatomy.

Yes, it is ironic that "Taliban Bob" McDonnell may end up as a casualty of the Kookinelli-Bolling contest as to who can be the most far right extremist. If extreme batshitery comes out of the 2012 session of the General Assembly, McDonnell may have to think twice about not vetoing some of the crazy stuff that the objective reality detached Republicans will likely push through. If McDonnell doesn't use his veto power, some of the batshitery will clearly attach to him and he may look to extreme for the VP stop he so strongly covets. Perhaps there is a God after all.

Virginia GOP Favored to Win State Senate

If the dreary weather wasn't enough to make for a Saturday morning funk, predictions on Tuesday's elections here in Virginia would be enough on their own to instill a major funk and near fear. Especially, if one is a rational, thinking citizen and even more so if one is black, gay, Hispanic, non-Christian. Basically a member of any one of the list of minority groups the GOP base would like to exile from the Old Dominion. If the GOP wins control of the Virginia Senate, there will be no stopping the extremism that will run wild in Richmond. I cringe to think at the celebrations at The Family Foundation if the Democrats in the Senate can no longer stop the worst of the Christianist agenda so loved by Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli. Victoria Cobb will be so excited she'll likely wet herself. So much for passage of any remotely LGBT favorable legislation. And the efforts to disenfranchise blacks and other minorities will likely accelerate under the false mantra of preventing "voter fraud." A piece in the Washington Post looks at the sad state of affairs. Here's a sampling:

We might need to reconsider the now-conventional view that the Northern Virginia suburbs are a bulwark against the extreme conservatism embraced in rural areas and elsewhere in the state. I say that in light of the recent news that the Loudoun County GOP sent out a Halloween e-mail depicting President Obama as a zombie with a bullet hole in his forehead.

In a newly created Senate district in western Loudoun and Prince William counties, even Democrats concede that outspoken conservative Dick Black will probably prevail.

A former delegate, Black is best known for sending plastic models of fetuses to legislators before an abortion vote. Of his career highlights, however, my personal favorite was his “nightie” explanation of why a husband couldn’t be convicted of raping his wife.

“I do not know how on earth you can validly get a conviction of a husband-wife rape where they are living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie, and so forth,” he said in a General Assembly debate on a spousal rape bill.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. . . . . Democrats also were optimistic because they thought they’d be able to beat some of the hard-line conservative Republicans who won primaries with tea party support.

Today, the GOP is confident of picking up enough seats to win control of the Senate, and it hopes to end up with at least a 23 to 17 majority. Democrats sound increasingly despondent and acknowledge that they’ll have to sweep all the close races to retain their sway. A Republican victory would give the party complete dominance in Richmond.

The GOP has surged ahead mainly because Virginia independents have turned decisively against Democrats in general since 2009, according to politicians and strategists for both parties. That results from unhappiness with the slow economy and high public spending, mainly by the federal government. It drives Democrats crazy that they’re suffering at the state level for the party’s problems in Washington.

One of the reasons I am so harsh with Obama is because his spinelessness and failure to use his pulpit to denounce the GOP is a major factor in the negative political trends in Virginia. I realize that state and national party issues should not be linked, but sadly too many Virginians are too stupid to realize that they will ultimately be voting against their own best interest, And for us LGBT Virginia, it will be increasingly impossible to move forward toward full citizenship except through court battles.

Will Virginia GOP Risk Uranuim Contamination of Major Drinking Water Supply?

I've noted before how some in the Republican Party are trying to turn safety regulations back to a level last seen in the 19th century when the robber barons flourished during the so-called "Gilded Age." An ongoing story relevant to this issue here in Virginia involves the efforts of a Canadian company and some members of the Republican party of Virginia to rescind a thirty year old ban on uranium mining in Virginia. The center of the controversy involves uranium deposits in Pittsylvania County that are upstream to the water supply sources for much of southeastern Virginia, including all of the cities on the south side of Hampton Roads: Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Studies indicate that the area of the deposits is subject to flooding and could lead to radioactive mining wastes washing into the water supply system which, of course, would endanger hundreds of thousands of citizens (actually, well over a million) all so that a foreign owned company - and probably some bribed members of the Virginia General Assembly - could make some bucks. Not surprisingly, Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli is missing from action in terms of protecting far over a million Virginians. Kookinelli would rather spend his time oppressing gays and denying global warming. Here are some highlights from a new study prepared by the BLUE RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE LEAGUE:

Roanoke, VA – Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League released a report documenting the presence of frequent and pervasive flooding at Coles Hill, the proposed uranium mine and mill site in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The report, titled, Historic and potential flooding at proposed uranium mine and mill site: Coles Hill, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, demonstrates not only that pervasive flooding regularly occurs throughout the Coles Hill site but also that flooding and other hydrological features would increase the risk of radioactive contamination, should the site eventually be used to store uranium mill tailings.

The principal finding of the BREDL’s report is: Above- and below-ground features at Coles Hill suggest that any uranium mill tailings storage operation there would create high risk of chronic and/or catastrophic release of radioactive contamination into the aquatic environment.

Virginia Uranium, Inc., the company proposing to mine and mill uranium at Coles Hill, has been providing Virginia legislators expense-paid visits to decommissioned uranium mine and mill sites in France and Canada. Ann Rogers, the author of the League’s report, criticized this practice, saying, “These company-paid junkets must not be substituted for hard science as the basis on which the Virginia General Assembly decides whether to keep the ban on uranium mining in Virginia.” A vote on the ban may occur as early as January, 2012.

The League’s report links evidence of flooding at Coles Hill with warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA contradicts many industry assurances that uranium mill tailing disposal sites are essentially maintenance free, stating, “There is no such thing as 'fail-safe' facilities for tailings management. Neither regulations, design specifications, nor management systems can be relied upon in isolation to provide assurance against containment failure: all three must be applied, in a framework of quality assurance and post-closure care and maintenance, to deliver a high probability of tailings containment security.”

BREDL calls for a systematic study of the hydrology at Coles Hill to determine whether mill tailings can be stored there with any assurance of safety throughout the 10,000 to 100,000-year period during which the tailings remain radioactive. This type of study has never been performed for Coles Hill.

Will common sense and proper scientific evidence hold sway with the Virginia GOP's members in the General Assembly? Sadly, I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile the cities in southside Hampton Roads need to be raising hell over this danger.

Mayor of Richmond Issues Non-Discrimination Executive Order

Click image to enlarge

While the marginalization and stigmatizing of LGBT Virginians remains a central policy plank for the Republican Party of Virginia with its whore like prostitution of itself to The Family Foundation and similar Christo-fascists across the state, some leaders - especially at the local level - seem to be realizing that Virginia's constant national press coverage on anti-gay initiatives is not good for business. Not to mention down right wrong. One such locality is the City of Richmond which last year added a LGBT tourism page to its convention and visitors bureau website. Now, that city's mayor has issued an executive order (shown above via GayRVA) that a zero tolerance policy for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity within any City of Richmond agency. While the executive order doesn't change the reality that LGBT Virginians have ZERO state law employment protections and that our significant life relationships are given less recognition that pet ownership rights, it is nonetheless a positive sign that some are belatedly waking up to the uncompetitive position Virginia is acquiring under that hate merchants of the GOP and Christianist organization.
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The question now is when will more localities join with Richmond and say "No" to Christianist anti-gay bigotry as a matter of official policy?

Message to the GOP: Stop Punishing the Unemployed

I know a number of individuals who lost their jobs in connection with the on going economic meltdown and who after months of job seeking are still unemployed. Now they either have losted their unemployment benefits or are faced with their unemployment benefits ceasing. Why? Because the GOP has repeatedly killed the extension of unemployment benefits citing the need for fiscal responsibility and fighting the deficit. Pork for pet projects and throwing billions of dollars (and thousands of US lives) down the toilet in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't count and isn't even on the table for discussion. Truth be told, Republicans seem to care nothing about the unemployed and seem to have a mindset that anyone unemployed is in that status through their own fault. As for the Christianists in the GOP base, they conveniently ignore the Gospel message to help the poor and feed the hungry. Instead they chant a no tax mantra and prefer to leave the unemployed to wither and die. Thus, the "party of family values" cares nothing about financially desperate families - nor do self-congratulatory, self-anointed Christians who care only about themselves. Paul Krugman has a column in Sunday's New York Times that properly takes the GOP to task for its hypocritical and heartless mindset. Here are some highlights:
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There was a time when everyone took it for granted that unemployment insurance, which normally terminates after 26 weeks, would be extended in times of persistent joblessness. It was, most people agreed, the decent thing to do.
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But that was then. Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits. How was that possible?
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The answer is that we’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused. Nothing can be done about the first group, and probably not much about the second. But maybe it’s possible to clear up some of the confusion.
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By the heartless, I mean Republicans who have made the cynical calculation that blocking anything President Obama tries to do — including, or perhaps especially, anything that might alleviate the nation’s economic pain — improves their chances in the midterm elections. Don’t pretend to be shocked: you know they’re out there, and make up a large share of the G.O.P. caucus.
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By the clueless I mean people like Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for senator from Nevada, who has repeatedly insisted that the unemployed are deliberately choosing to stay jobless, so that they can keep collecting benefits. . .One doubts, however, that any amount of evidence could change Ms. Angle’s view of the world — and there are, unfortunately, a lot of people in our political class just like her.
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[A]s you may have noticed, right now the economy isn’t booming — again, there are five unemployed workers for every job opening. Cutting off benefits to the unemployed will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.
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[A]id to the unemployed creates jobs quickly — while allowing that aid to lapse, which is what is happening right now, is a recipe for even weaker job growth, not in the distant future but over the next few months.
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is there any chance that these arguments will get through? Not, I fear, to Republicans: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something,” said Upton Sinclair, “when his salary” — or, in this case, his hope of retaking Congress — “depends upon his not understanding it.” But there are also centrist Democrats who have bought into the arguments against helping the unemployed. It’s up to them to step back, realize that they have been misled — and do the right thing by passing extended benefits.