Ken Cuccinelli's Economic Voodoo for Virginia

Proving yet again that he apparently drinks gallons and gallons of Kool-Aid - or perhaps is as insane as I think he is - Ken Cuccinelli has unveiled his proposal on how he would energize Virginia's economy and, not surprisingly, its more of the same warmed over Republican Party voodoo economics.  Cuccinelli's magic catalyst?  Slash taxes for both individuals and corporations. Yes, as noted, it is the same old mantra. Slash taxes and supposedly the economy will take off.  Never mind the evidence of the last decade or more which shows it doesn't work.  Oh, and in the process the infrastructure crumbles.   The Washington Post trashes Cuccinelli in a main editorial  Here are excerpts:

LIKE MITT ROMNEY, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II wants to cut taxes — by a lot. Like Mr. Romney, Mr. Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor, promises this would not reduce government revenues by a dime, since he would also eliminate significant tax loopholes and deductions. And like Mr. Romney, Mr. Cuccinelli adamantly refuses to identify these loopholes and deductions.

Why would Mr. Cuccinelli expect Virginians to fall for this?

Mr. Cuccinelli unveiled his plan at a yogurt shop, claiming it would help such businesses grow faster by cutting their taxes. More likely, it would starve the state of the resources it needs to fund public schools, state colleges and universities, public safety, mental health programs and state parks. 

Somehow, he would slash $1.4 billion in taxes — about 8 percent of the state’s annual tax collections — but hold revenue steady. It’s economics reduced to magic.

Already, Virginia’s tax code is highly regressive. The personal income tax, which accounts for about two-thirds of state revenue, is a flat 5.75 percent for everyone making more than $17,000 a year. For the sake of fairness, the wealthiest Virginians should be asked to do more. By cutting personal income taxes, Mr. Cuccinelli would ask them to do less.

His proposal assumes that Virginians are overtaxed and in need of relief. In fact, Virginia is one of the wealthiest and most frugal states in the country. Its median income ranks eighth nationally, but state outlays on a range of functions are average or below average. On public and higher education, for instance, Virginia’s per capita spending ranks 38th nationally. On health care, its per capita spending ranks 40th.

Unsurprisingly, leaders of some of the state’s largest jurisdictions saw Mr. Cuccinelli’s blueprint as a recipe for higher property taxes, which are imposed at the local level. How else would localities compensate for the loss in state revenue that directly supports public schools? 

The greed driven "godly Christians" who back Cuccinelli will, of course love Cuccinelli's proposal.  They never cease to look for ways to undermine the social safety net and to kick the poor and unfortunate to the curb.  All the while, naturally, patting themselves on their backs for the godliness and piety.

Thursday Morning Male Beauty

GOP Star Witnesses Debunk Right-Wing Benghazi Conspiracy Theories

The right wing has been salivating over supposed bombshells that would damage Barack Obama - who they despise because of his race - and Hillary Clinton in connecting with the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  And yesterday, they hoped to set the bombshell off, precept it didn't happen.  Their star witness debunked their wild conspiracy theories.  Yes, Benghazi could have been handled better, but the freepers are so over wrought with their hatred of Obama that objective reality never seems to factor into their fantasies.  Think Progress looks at the let down for the far right.  Here are excerpts:

The “whistleblowers” at today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on what really happened in Benghazi, Libya last September were supposed to break the dam that would lead to President Obama’s eventual downfall, in the eyes of conservatives. Instead, these witness actually served to debunk several theories that the right-wing has pushed on Benghazi, leaving the hearing a fizzle for the GOP:

1. F-16s could have been sent to Benghazi

Part of the prevailing theory surrounding the events the night of the Benghazi attacks is that the Obama administration did not do enough militarily to respond to the crisis. Gregory Hicks — a Foreign Service Officer and the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya — claimed during his pre-hearing testimony that fighter jets could have been flown over Benghazi, preventing the second wave of the attack from occurring. 

Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) questioned that statement, asking Hicks whether he disagreed with Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey’s assessment that no air assets were in range the night of the attack. Hicks didn’t disagree, saying he was “speaking from [his] perspective” and what “veteran Libyan revolutionaries” told him, rather than Pentagon assessments.

2. Hillary Clinton signed cables denying additional security to Benghazi

House Republicans came to the conclusion in their interim report on Benghazi that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied to them about what she knew and when during her testimony this January. This includes her statement that at no time was she aware of requests for additional security at the diplomatic facility in Benghazi prior to the attack. 

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) used her time to take issue with this claim, asking all three witnesses about standard protocol for cables leaving the State Department. All three agreed with Maloney, that the Secretary of State’s name is placed at the bottom of all outgoing cables and telegrams from Foggy Bottom, whether the Secretary has viewed them or not, shooting down the GOP claim.

3. A Special Forces Team that could have saved lives was told to stand down

One of the most shocking reveals in the lead-up to today’s hearing was that a team of Special Forces in Tripoli were told not to deploy to Benghazi during the attack. That decision has led to an uproar on the right, including claims of dereliction of duty towards Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey for not taking actions that could have saved lives. 

During questioning, Hicks confirmed that the team was ready to be deployed — not to join the fighting at the CIA annex — but “to secure the airport for the withdrawal of our personnel from Benghazi after the mortar attack.” Hicks also confirmed that it was the second such team to be readied for deployment, with the first having proceeded to Benghazi earlier. Despite the second team not deploying, the staff was all evacuated first to Tripoli, then to Germany, within 18 hours of the attack taking place.

4. The State Department’s Accountability Review Board isn’t legitimate

Republicans have been attacking the State Department’s official in-house review of the shortcomings seen before, during, and after the assault in Benghazi. That criticism prompted House Republicans to write their own report. When asked point blank about the recommendations of the Board, however, the witnesses didn’t cooperate with the GOP narrative. “Absolutely,” Eric Nordstrom, the Regional Security Officer for Libya prior to the assault in Benghazi, answered when asked if he believes implementing the recommendations would improve security. “I had an opportunity to review that along with other two committee reports. I think taken altogether, they’re fairly comprehensive and reasonable.” Hicks, when questioned, said that while he had some issues with the process by which the Board gathered its information, he demurred on criticizing the report itself.

 Reality means nothing to the far right and their political prostitutes in the GOP.  Hence, be assured the conspiracy theories will remain alive and well in freeper land.  Remember, these folks still insist that Obama wasn't born in America.

Poll Shows Wide Public Support for Jason Collins’s Coming Out

While right wing news outlets and the usual suspects among the professional Christian crowd have been hyperventilating and spewing venom over NBA star Jason Collins' decision to come out of the closet, a new poll shows that there is large public support for Collins.  Which shows that the Christofascists are ranting within a shrinking bubble.  And, as the aging homophobes and bigots who make up the GOP base and listener base for toxic individuals like Rush Limbaugh literally die off, I suspect the shrillness of the merchants of hate will only increase - and hopefully drive even more people away.   The Washington Post reports on the poll findings which cannot be good news from Tony Perkins, Brian Brown and others who enrich themselves by peddling hatred.  Here are highlights:

When Washington Wizards center Jason Collins made history last month as the first active male athlete in a major U.S. sport to come out of the closet as gay, it was met by an overwhelmingly positive response from prominent athletes, politicians and celebrities. It turns out that stance is shared by a vast majority of the country at large, according to results of a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

According to the poll, 68 percent of Americans support Collins’ decision to come out, while only 23 percent are opposed, and the percentage of positive responses is higher among younger and better-educated respondents. 

The only part of the public with lukewarm or negative reactions to Collins’ decision are those who identified themselves as “very conservative” politically, only 45 percent of whom support the decision (versus 47 percent who oppose it), and those who identified themselves as gay marriage opponents (41 percent in support, 50 percent opposed).

The results of the Post-ABC poll suggest Collins has widespread support for his decision from a cross-section of Americans. In addition to the overall numbers, Collins’ decision finds support among majorities of women (69 percent), men (67 percent), seniors (58 percent), non-college graduates (63 percent) and those who identified themselves politically as independents (73 percent) and Republicans (52 percent).

But the biggest support was among those who identified themselves as Democrats or college graduates, and those aged 30 or younger, with 81 percent of respondents in each group saying they support Collins’ decision. Gay marriage supporters are also overwhelmingly in support of Collins – 90 percent, versus 7 percent opposed.

[I]n the new poll, 66 percent of African Americans and 70 percent of whites support Collins’ decision, with nearly half of each group supporting him “strongly.” 

Note the correlation between ignorance and bigotry - something that this blog has looked at before in terms of fundamentalist Christians having the lowest levels of education and IQ's.  The poll results are also bad news for the GOP's continued anti-gay platform.   The nation is changing and the GOP is on the wrong side of history. Here are other poll findings:

Is Cumulus Looking to Dump Rush Limbaugh?

Rush Limbaugh has become increasingly crude and down right hateful in many of his rants.  And advertisers seem to be catching on that attaching their brand to Limbaugh may not be in the best interests of product sales to the larger consumer base even if the spittle flecked, racist conspiracy crowd that makes up Limbaugh's core listeners still are enthralled by his crudeness and bigotry.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at what may be an effort by Limbaugh's syndication to dump him.  Obviously, such a put down for Limbaugh would be all too delicious.  Here are some article highlights:

“We've had a tough go of it this last year,” Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said Tuesday morning. “The facts are indisputable regarding the impact certain things have had on ad dollars."

Dickey told analysts on the earnings call that his radio empire’s revenue was down $5.6 million in the first quarter of 2013 on top of a boatload of debt. Why? Parse the weasel words (“the impact of certain things”) and you’ll see that Dickey is blaming one man for the precipitous decline of right-wing talk radio’s profitability: Rush Limbaugh. 

El Rushbo is still a giant in the industry, but the impact of slamming Sandra Fluke on his radio show one year ago persists—with some $2.4 million in losses attributed by Dickey to declines in the “syndicated-talk segment.”

Insiders confirm that these declines are primarily due to the ongoing reluctance of national advertisers to attach their name to the toxic talk-radio format that first made Limbaugh famous a generation ago. 

“We’re watching the end of right-wing conservative talk radio,” says Jerry Del Colliano, publisher of the radio-industry tip sheet Inside Music Media. “The genre is dying among ratings and dying among advertisers ... Rush is at the end of his career. His constituency is all wearing Depends. And he’s getting himself into trouble he doesn’t need. So can you put Humpty Dumpty back together again? They have been able to improve their advertising picture, but they have not been able to come back.”

“Sandra Fluke was simply the lightning that struck and hit an old building that collapsed,” Colliano says. “She didn’t do it. She helped to bring it down at the end, but it was falling apart on its own.”

He [Limbaugh]  then doubled down on the attack in unusually creepy terms:

“If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I’ll tell you what it is: we want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

The blowback was immediate. Elected Republicans, usually loathe to offend the influential talker, distanced themselves from his comments. But more powerful was the boycott that ensued, with 98 advertisers pulling their support for the show. 

The numbers announced on Tuesday made clear the impact of the boycott. Rush's comments on Fluke came on Feb 29, leap day of last year, so the Cumulus numbers offer an apples-to-apples comparison: pre-Fluke and post-Fluke. While some advertisters have come back, the show has been unable to regain its footing, and the impact has spread across right-wing talk radio as advertisers have became increasingly gun-shy about association with the genre.

But the larger issue is the declining demographics of the right-wing talk-radio racket.  “Look at the millennial generation,” says Colliano. “There’s 80 million of them coming of age. They don’t see color. They don’t see gender. And they’re civic minded: they don’t like bloviating. They don’t like yelling and screaming. So you tell me: how’s right-wing talk radio working for them?”

Now we need to see the same phenomenon hit Fox News, a/k/a Faux News.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

A National Deficit Decline the GOP May Be Hard Put to Explain

If one listens to the endless verbal diarrhea emanating from far right talk radio and many within the GOP - including some of my former proteges who seem to be imbibing Kool-Aid by the gallon -  you'd believe that the nation's budget is increasing.  Indeed, everything coming from the right describes President Obama as a big spender when not accusing him of being a socialist.  The truth, of course is quite different from the alternate universe inhabited by the Christofascists, Tea Party crowd and Fox News viewers.  Maddow Blog has some information that can't be popular with the far right.   Especially, because it shows the budget deficit exploding in 2009 after the U.S. economy tanked thanks to failed GOP policies and the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan launched by the cretin and sociopath known as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, respectively.  Here's the money quote:

For deficit hawks, all of the news is good news.

The Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday that the federal budget deficit is declining this year compared to fiscal 2012.

For the first seven months of 2013, the deficit was $489 billion. That is $231 billion less than the budget shortfall for the comparable period last year.
The decrease is almost entirely due to revenue increases.

Not only is this year's deficit on track to be significantly smaller than last year's, to the tune of about $200 billion, it's also on pace to be even better than optimistic projections from February. Hell, we even ran a surplus in April.

All told, the U.S. federal deficit will be about $600 billion smaller than it was in President Obama's first year in office, making this the fastest deficit reduction Americans have seen since World War II.

And with that, let's pause to note what a terrible mistake it is for Republicans to continue to prioritize a perceived problem that's quickly improving.

But let's also note another tidbit of information: one of the main reasons the deficit is shrinking so quickly is the increased revenue from the tax hikes that began in January.

Former University of Richmond Football Star Comes Out as Gay

In the hierarchy of colleges and universities in Virginia, the University of Richmond does not rank among the more liberal institutions, although it is light years ahead in logic, reason and the embrace of modernity than the spittle flecked Bible beating institutions such as Pat Robertson's Regent University and the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.  Thus, it is interesting that Kevin Grayson (pictured above) one of the University of Richmond's former football stars who helped the school win a national title has come out as gay.  I suspect some heads in the alumni ranks must be exploding.  The Virginian Pilot and WTVR-TV have coverage on this  story.  First these highlights from the Pilot article:

Kevin Grayson, a former University of Richmond football standout, has announced he is gay.

Grayson, a wide receiver, played for the Spiders from 2007-2010, helping them win the Football Championship Subdivision national title in 2008. He was not drafted by an NFL team but played last year for a professional team in Italy.

“Why can’t I be the guy making plays that help my team win and still on the flip side be a gay male?” Grayson said in an interview that aired Tuesday night on WTVR-TV in Richmond.

“If you’re an athlete, you want to be an athlete,” he said. “You want to be known for what you’ve done. … You don’t want to be that person who is always the gay athlete.”

WTVR reported Grayson is considering a return to Italy or trying to play in the Canadian Football League this year.

Here is additional information from WTVR (which also looks at the emotional and psychological pressures of being in the closet)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WTVR) – Kevin Grayson has won championships at every level of competition–high school, college and professionally–and he has carried a secret each step of the way.  He is one of the most decorated football players Central Virginia has ever seen, and he happens to be gay.

“People didn’t believe it because I was an athlete,” Grayson said in an exclusive interview with CBS 6.

“They’re like ‘Kevin plays football, he plays basketball  he runs track–no way you know?’”
“Those are the types of things where if I could go back and say; ‘Why can’t I be an athlete? Why can’t I be a star player? Why can’t I be the guy making plays that helps my team win, and still on the flip side, be a gay male?’”

Grayson has “no doubt” there are gay players in the NFL currently, and admits to knowing some active players himself. But, he explained that “it’s one of those things where you meet someone and you find out about something it’s a ‘you take it to the grave’ type thing.”

Dr. Leticia Flores is a clinical psychologist at VCU specializing in issues of sexual and gender identity. She explained that some gays and lesbians spend much of their day trying to remember who might know about their sexuality, trying to guess how their friends..family and co-workers might react.

For athletes, and male athletes particularly, she said the stress can be compounded by societies’ perception of how they are supposed to behave.

“Male athletes are seen to be very masculine, very macho, a guy’s guy,” Dr. Flores said.  “And people’s stereotypes and biases against gay men is that they are the opposite of a guy’s guy.”  “It’s that extra pressure that you can’t even remotely show something that would lead someone to suspect you,” Grayson said.  “So it makes it ten times harder.”

Some of that pressure was relieved when Grayson chose to confide in a few trusted teammates, some of whom he found out were also gay and none of which shunned or turned their back on him. Now he is sharing his story with everyone, not only for the release for himself, but to hopefully inspire others hiding behind one too many masks.

“There’s clearly a relief and that relief comes from finally being themselves,” Dr. Flores said.  “We call it being, in the psych jargon, being authentic. But you’re who you are and you don’t have to wear the mask anymore”

Kudos to Kevin.  I hope his coming out will help young gays to come to terms with their sexual orientation and act in positive ways and not allow the hate merchants of the GOP and professional Christian crowd to diminish their pride in themselves.

Heritage Foundation Anti-Immigration Reform Paper Author Says "Some Races More Intelligent Than Others"

I catch a great deal of grief at times for maintaining that the GOP - a party for which I was once an activist and city committee member and precinct captain - now has racism as one of its twin pillars (the other pillar of the GOP is religious extremism).   But, from all I see and read, I believe I am on target.  This blog recently noted that the Heritage Foundation now headed by knuckle dragging Neanderthal, former GOP Senator Jim DeMint, had issued a position paper arguing against comprehensive immigration reform.  I should have known that the other shoe would soon drop, and sure enough, one of the authors of the Heritage paper (pictured at left) is on record as believing that "some races are more intelligent than others."  I think we all know which race he champions.  Media Matters looks at the mindset behind the Heritage Foundation report.  Yes, Hispanics - indeed all minorities - need to run screaming from the GOP.   Here are some article highlights:

A co-author of the Heritage Foundation's new immigration report, which right-wing media have hyped despite even conservative criticism about its methodology, has long promoted inflammatory theories about the relationship between race and IQ in Hispanic immigrants, an unsurprising fact given his ties to extremist anti-immigrant organizations.

Dylan Matthews of The Washington Post's Wonkblog reported that Jason Richwine, a co-author of the Heritage report, asserts in his 2009 doctoral dissertation titled "IQ and Immigration Policy" that "there are deep-set differentials in intelligence between races." Matthews wrote [emphasis added]:

While it's clear he thinks it is partly due to genetics -- "the totality of the evidence suggests a genetic component to group differences in IQ" -- he argues the most important thing is that the differences in group IQs are persistent, for whatever reason. He writes, "No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against."

Matthews also included Richwine's dissertation abstract, which forwards the idea that the U.S. should not only select its immigrant pool based on IQ, but that immigrants and their future generations are not apt to obtain his desired level of intelligence [emphasis added]:

The statistical construct known as IQ can reliably estimate general mental ability, or intelligence. The average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations. The consequences are a lack of socioeconomic assimilation among low-IQ immigrant groups, more underclass behavior, less social trust, and an increase in the proportion of unskilled workers in the American labor market. Selecting high-IQ immigrants would ameliorate these problems in the U.S., while at the same time benefiting smart potential immigrants who lack educational access in their home countries.

His dissertation, however, was not the first time Richwine promoted these offensive claims. In July 2008, while Richwine was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, he said in a panel discussion of the book The New Case Against Immigration, broadcast on C-SPAN, that "races differ in all sorts of ways, and probably the most important way is in IQ."

Richwine's anti-immigrant language is reminiscent of that used by the Pioneer Fund, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a hate group that "funds studies of race and intelligence, as well as eugenics, the 'science' of breeding superior human beings that was discredited by various Nazi atrocities."

There is more, but I will let readers check out the rest of the articles for themselves.  The bottom line is that this prevalent mindset in the GOP and far right elements.  And it's ugly, it's racist and it is contrary to everything that supposed Christians ought to be supporting.

Australia: Former Catholic Priest Hit With 64 More Sex Abuse Charges

As noted previously on this blog, governmental commissions in Australia are holding inquiries on sexual abuse of minors and, while not officially targeting the Roman Catholic Church, it goes without saying that given the continued sensational stories of abuse and cover up, the Catholic Church will receive most of the commissions' attention.  A new story in The Herald Sun  (in Victoria) underscores the incredible rot within the priesthood and those who put protecting the Church's image above the welfare and safety of children and youths.  Here are excerpts on one serial abuser protected by the Church hierarchy (yes, it is the same pattern we've seen world wide, and all orchestrated from the Vatican):

The 59-year-old man, known only as "the man" due to legal reasons, was due to appear on charges relating to alleged child-sex offences against six boys and three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.  During this appearance he was charged with an additional 64 offences including 11 counts of sexual intercourse without consent; 52 counts of indecent assault; and one count of committing an act of indecency.

The new charges relate to alleged assaults against one boy and two girls, aged from nine to 19, between 1982 and 1985 in Moree, Narrabri, Inverell and Armidale and come as part of ongoing investigations by Strike Force Glenroe, which was established in July last year to investigate claims of sexual abuse by the former priest, and comprises detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and the New England and Barwon Local Area Commands.

The man is also at the centre of allegations of cover-ups of sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church after he told a court in 2004 he had made an admission to clergy in 1992 that he had performed oral sex on boys.

He was defrocked in 2005 but continued to live in Armidale before being arrested in October last year.   Strike Force Glenroe investigations are ongoing and detectives urge anyone with information to assist them to come forward.

One can only hope that this unfolding stories will convince Australian Catholics  to walk away from the Catholic Church and find less morally bankrupt religious institutions.  I cannot imagine continuing to financially support such a cesspool.