blogging our way to democratic wins in virginia beach
Send a SEAL, not a RINO??? Whaa???
From Scott Taylor’s Facebook page:
You can help send a principled conservative to Congress. www.ScottTaylorMoneyBomb.com
Scott Taylor is a former Navy SEAL, Iraq-War Veteran and small business owner. Take a minute and learn about Scott at www.ScottTaylorforCongress.com
Wow! Apparently, there are two different varieties of Republican. On the one hand you have the garden-variety sheep who lap up on another spewed by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. They little know how to spell “socialism” let alone know what it means. But hell, throw a bumpersticker on your car saying “Obama = Socialism” despite your ignorance.
But it’s a different story for Republican donors who actually engage and utilize the gray matter between their ears. Now the RNC is sheepishly back away from it big time. From
“It’s one to sit around a conference room or a bar with your colleagues and talk about stuff like this,” said Denver-based political analyst Eric Sondermann. “It’s another thing — a whole new level of both cynicism and immaturity to put it into a Power Point presentation to other donors and strategists. And it’s a level of stupidity to leave it lying around.”
Sondermann said the document surfacing can hurt Republicans in two ways — with Democrats, already suspicious of the conservative movement’s possibly racist underbelly, and with wealthy Republican donors, who are referred to as “ego-driven” and easily milked with offers of access and “tchochkes.”
Way to go, Repugs!
Ha! The DCCC sent me a funny email today. “Last time someone spoke out of the both sides of their mouth this much, they were trying to sell a Pinto”, writes Southern Regional Press Secretary Jesse Ferguson.
Scott “Blah, blah, blah, bad Obama” Rigell is a car salesman. Yet despite his opposition to all things Obama, he was all too happy to rake in the cash from the Feds for “Cash for Clunkers”… $450,000 worth of happy.
Rigell is also trying to sell himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Repug despite his $1,000 donation to Obama in 2008, albeit pre-primary and supposedly as a “protest donation” against Hillary Clinton. Bwaaa!!!
“Nine House Democrats indicated in an Associated Press survey Monday they have not ruled out switching their ‘no’ votes to ‘yes’ on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, brightening the party’s hopes in the face of unyielding Republican opposition”. Could one of those 9 include our own Rep. Glenn Nye?
Here we go again!
I remember when I worked in the Loudoun Board of Supervisors office and attended VACO’s lobby days in Richmond. With the crap that former Delegate Dick Black was throwing down, it was downright embarrassing to be from Loudoun.
And when Interior Secretary Salazar convenes East Coast governors tomorrow, Virginia will be the laughing stock. They are gathering to discuss offshore wind, a renewable energy that doesn’t contribute to global warming.
As the Virginian-Pilot points out, “McDonnell said he hopes to get Salazar’s ear about offshore drilling at the summit”. Yes, and when McDonnell is done, Salazar will whisper in his ear. “You’re a fool”, he’ll say.
“For one thing, Gov. McDonnell, you hoodwinked Virginia voters with your trumped up dreams of jobs and revenues from drilling, but you can’t fool me. I know the truth. Plus, you’ve got a whacked out Attorney General there in Virginia, suing the EPA. The two of you obviously have your heads stuck in the sand. And you better get it unstuck if Virginia is going to stand any chance of coming to the stakeholders’ table on offshore wind.”
Says M. Lance Phillips, a Texas oilman leading the charge to overturn Florida’s ban on oil drilling, “We really do want to do for Florida what oil and gas have done for Texas.”
Meanwhile… below the fold is a map depicting all the damaged pipelines as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Something else for Florida to look forward to!
I had the opportunity yesterday to chat with my Congressman Glenn Nye whose district involves Virginia’s every touch to the Atlantic Ocean. I reiterated all those points I raised in my Daily Press op ed plus (data gaps, studied in a microcosm, DC Court overturning 2007-2012 program, Navy-NASA objections). His response was to talk about how “unfairly” the lines were drawn for VA’s offshore area. Completely irrelevant to my point and I told him such! He is unbelievable, but so typical of the prevailing attitude in Virginia. Drill first, ask questions later.
(Okay, here comes all the comments about me picking on Nye…)
Okay Democrats… mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 8th! Six Republican candidates are vying for the chance to face Rep. Glenn Nye in the November general election 2010.
Fun fun! We’ll now have five months of Republican squabbling and mini-meltdowns over potential Democratic crossover voting. So which of the six should we vote for? Why not stir the pot early and often?
I think it would be great fun if Scott Taylor was the nominee. He and Nye look so much alike. Voters will be so confused.
Which one do I think would be the easiest for Nye to beat? I lean towards Kenny Golden. I’ve never shared as much as two words with the guy but I’ve seem him around enough to come to the conclusion that he will strike voters as a mean ol’ man who hates people. Whatever GOP candidates emerges will be very bloodied, and Kenny, if that nominee, will scare voters off with all that blood all over him.
Judging by the fact that a neighbor already has his yard sign up, that he’s clever enough to everyday have ads gracing my Facebook home page, and that he’s got an ugly long scrolling list of Republican endorsements on his website, I think the other 5 candidates will be “primarily” (ha… I made a pun) gunning for Scott Rigell. He’s Mr. Nice Guy apparently and already doing outreach to Democrats. He’ll likely have the money to be very two-faced. He’s all Dr. Jekyll right now with all the pro-life, pro-guns rah-rah on his website. What do you bet that Mr. Hyde emerges after he’s won the primary. We should screen shots of his site right now so we can remind voters of the true Scott Rigell.
Here’s what was reported by a Facebook friend along with some comments left on that post (misspellings corrected):
“Glenn Nye did a great job speaking to the Virginia Bar Association on health care reform yesterday in Williamsburg. If reform has any chance of passing, it will take independent-minded Democrats like Glenn to help make it happen. I was very impressed by his comments. He wants it to happen, but in a prudent manner.”
Here’s the comments back and forth:
“[Y]et the net roots are all over him for being too conservative – so out of touch! Most people aren’t at the far right or the far left. We need leaders like him who actually represent their constituents.”
“I agree. I respect my progressive friends, but I tend to take more moderate views toward most issues. I don’t share the anger toward Glenn Nye, and I tend to respect the views of our more moderate US Senators.”
I guess the question now is what exactly does Glenn Nye mean by a “prudent manner”.
A Facebook friend forwarded me this “Election Night Survey Of Massachusetts Senate Voters” done by Hart Hart Research Associates on behalf of the AFL-CIO.
Here are the survey’s main findings:
1. This was a working-class revolt, and it reveals the danger to Democrats of not successfully addressing workers’ economic concerns.
2. Voters still have the same goals they had in November 2008: fix the economy and provide affordable health care. But they don’t see the job being done.
3. Massachusetts voters say that President Obama and the Democrats have done too little, rather than attempted too much.
4. The results of this election were not a call to abandon national health care reform.
5. Considerable evidence exists that this election was largely about the individual candidates, Coakley and Brown, more than a referendum on President Obama or the Democratic agenda.
6. This election was not an endorsement of a Republican agenda on the economy or otherwise.
Interesting, don’t you think? 2010 is a pivotal year obviously as we have congressional elections in November. I don’t think anybody expects the economy to be fixed this year, but rather at least starkly headed in the right direction. Voters will however expect national health care reform by the time they go to the polls this November. Those assisting in that processes will be awarded with re-election.
I also think that Deeds vs. McDonnell was also one largely about the individual candidates. McDonnell’s extreme makeover from a right-winger to a moderate was brilliant. Deeds, the true moderate, inspired nobody. He was all over the place – rejecting Obama, accepting Obama, rejecting Obama. Bizarrely and perhaps intentional to confuse voters, McDonnell when convenient even praised Obama. So, yes, it was an issue of personalities and not a referendum on Obama in 2009.
What I think Massachusetts shows is that a personable candidate with a good organization behind them. It also shows that voters want results. The Democratic candidate in order to be successful has got to provide strong evidence that he/she is working to improve the economy and to deliver health care reform can win. That is regardless of their party affiliation. A true test of this notion will also play out in Virginia’s 5th congressional district with our Democratic champion Tom Perriello. He’s there with 3 out of 4 of the necessary ingredients so far. Let’s be there to help him with that good organization.
An email from Glenn Nye (find it here at Blue Virginia) discussing all the amazing positives of Virginia’s offshore wind development is circulating around. He certainly does a good job of building excitement for what will be a very lucrative and clean energy pursuit if we’re smart and play our cards right.
But seeing how I was actually in attendance at last Friday’s Virginia Beach press conference where he spoke, I feel I need to tell the other side of the story regarding Glenn’s remarks. For some gosh-darn reason, Rep. Glenn “Speak out of both sides of his mouth” Nye has neglected to add it to his email.
Yes, he said, offshore wind was great, but he also added how it would work well in combination with our “traditional” energy resources, specifically mentioning coal, nuclear and offshore oil and gas.
For me, the only difference between Glenn Nye and Bob McDonnell is that Glenn at least gets a little more excited about offshore wind. Why he felt the need to insert the “coal, nuclear and offshore oil and gas” in, is beyond me. Nobody else mentioned it at the press conference. And did he really think that I wouldn’t call him out on this? Glenn, Glenn, Glenn… dude… you’re not making life very easy for this Democrat!
Okay… a show of hands…
How many noticed Rep. Glenn Nye twisting in his seat as Sen. Yvonne Miller gave her speech last night at soon-to-be Sen. Bill Fleming’s Democratic Unity Rally? Damn… wish I recorded it!
There is no denying that we didn’t work very very hard in 2009. As a result of all the blood, sweat and tears, I’ll make the following predictions:
1. Bob McDonnell will be outed as the buffoon he is on all things energy related. All of us totally jazzed up about Virginia’s offshore wind will come to the conclusion that he provides only lip-service to the cause. His agenda is first and foremost to Big Oil and Big Coal. Bob ridiculously makes a lot of noise about something completely outside his control. And while visions of rigs drilling for oil in 2011 dance in his head, other Atlantic coasts states are erecting wind turbines in 2011. We lose unless other forces (perhaps the U.S. Navy?) can wrest the bull by the horns and act as the “public” in “public/private partnership”. The potential for Virginia is just too powerful, even for Gov. Bob and his cronies. Meanwhile, MMS unofficially postpones Virginia’s enrollment in the 2007-2012 OCS program and any drilling off Virginia’s shores is more appropriately considered with the rest of the Atlantic coasts states enrolled in the 2010-2015 OCS program.
2. Federal climate change legislation passes with both Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Jim Webb voting “yes”. Webb’s vote will be earned as a result of a lot of compromises that will make this bill way less than perfect. But like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts which weren’t ideal, shit can be amended.
3. As a result of this Federal action, the Old Dominion Electric Coop will give up on the Surry coal plant. The now $6 billion price tag for this monstrosity will go up and potential investors will start backing away from it. The final nail in the coffin will be Hampton Roads cities, towns and counties, who stand to gain nothing from its construction and suffer only its ill effects, each one by one offering resolutions in opposition.
4. The public uproar over dirty Dominion will force GA legislators to stop kissing its ass. In 2010, Dominion will still get everything it wants but legislators finally finding balls will start to insist on certain accommodations, starting with fly ash disposal, mandatory renewable energy standards, and mandatory energy efficiency.
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