GOPper Dissociation
As a husband and father, Bert knows that we must protect the sanctity of human life.
As someone who’s favorite color is blue, Eileen thinks she’d like to eat pizza tonight.
Archive for the ‘Republicans’ Category
Cat Got Sen. Frank Wagner’s Tongue
The mastermind responsible for setting the ball in motion in 2005 towards Virginia offshore drilling sneaked in quietly and late at last evening’s MMS public hearing on the Atlantic seismic study necessary to support drilling. Nor did state senator Frank Wagner speak. Darn! No cute little stories about how all the little fishies love to hang out in the area of offshore oil rigs.
Politicizing Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s “Clean the Bay” Day
Jim Hoeft of the Republican blog Bearing Drift has decided to organize his supporters to join him in participating in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s “Clean the Bay” Day on Saturday, June 5. This is terrific! The Bay needs all the help it can get.
It’s also very interesting how Jim had to amend the context of his invitation to Republicans to join this event. You see CBF is a 501(c)(3) and is strictly prohibited from engaging in political activities. They are hyper-sensitive to anything that smells like politics anywhere near them.
Last year I was helping Brian Moran in the Democratic primary. He wanted to participate in “Clean the Bay” Day and invite his supporters to join him. He asked me to work on setting it up. The attorney for CBF came down on that idea hard, doing everything he could to stop that from happening with all sorts of restrictions such as no photography, no campaign T-shirts, buttons, stickers, lit, no press release, no reporting, etc., etc. and personally policing our participation that day. We got the picture, respected their position and abandoned the idea.
Jim Hoeft in his blog post announcing Bearing Drift’s participation originally pointed out how June 5 was just a handful of days away from the GOP primary for the 2nd congressional district and how it would be great to see the GOP 2nd candidates join him. One candidate, Jessica Sandlin, responded with “Love it, Jim! I’m in and I’ll bring my kids”. Jim has since struck that language from the blog post. He’ll hopefully also remind the GOP candidates like Jessica of CBF’s restrictions.
I talked to VBDC Chair Susan Mariner about this and she thinks it would be a great activity for Virginia Beach Dems to be involved with too. Look for more details on that coming soon!
Save the Bay and Drill Baby Drill! Right, Jim?
Mayor Sessoms, Conductor of the Runaway Train
Gotta love this invitation from Bob Dean and the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance!
Real estate and personal property tax increases, fee hikes, a new trash fee, another budget increase, hundreds and hundreds of millions for a trolley to nowhere, public employee salaries outpacing the private
sector, select special interest groups feeding at the public trough, the worst recession since the great depression, the convention center and Sandler Center both sucking away precious public safety funds, and 29
percent of our students on the free and reduced lunch program. What a way to run a railroad.
What’s a mayor to do? Let’s ask him about these and other issues on Saturday.
You are invited to join us this Saturday, April 24 at 8:30 a.m. at the Marion Manor Retirement Center located behind St. Gregory’s Church which is located across the street from Haynes Furniture. Breakfast begins at 8:30 followed by the meeting at 9. Students are encouraged to attend.
For additional information, please contact Robert Dean at 427-6606 or by e-mail: robertkdean@cox.net.
Hmmm… should I go? I’d love to see this man in the hot seat. But is it worth my precious Saturday morning and sleeping in…
NRA Alone to Teach Gun Safety in K-6 Classrooms
From the Virginia Center for Public Safety:
In another example of the degree to which he’s prepared to pander to his allies in the political fringe, Gov. Bob McDonnell has taken action to give the National Rifle Association an exclusive mandate to “educate” all primary school children in Virginia on their idea of gun safety.
In the 2010 session, HB1217 was introduced as a firearms safety measure to be added to the K-6th grade curriculum of public schools. This legislation would require the Board of Education to adopt curriculum guidelines using the National Rifle Association materials.
With little hope of shielding our children from exposure to the NRA’s agenda, opponents managed to get the bill amended in the Senate to include the National Crime Prevention materials, known for its education materials featuring “McGruff the Crime Dog” and steps to help “Take a Bite Out of Crime”, as well in an effort to broaden options for resource materials for the Board of Education.
Apparently intending to use a typo as an excuse, the Governor has now recommended that all mention of the National Crime Prevention Council be removed from the bill. In effect,the Governor’s recommendation gives the NRA exclusive control over part of every Virginian child’s education.
State legislators will reconvene on Wednesday April 21 in Richmond and will consider/vote on McDonnell’s amendments to HB1217. Contact them now and tell them to vote “no” granting exclusive control to the NRA to any part of our children’s education.
Domenech, Sec. of Natural Resources, Buys Cuccinelli’s Shit
I can’t tell you how comforting it is knowing that the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources is a member of the Flat Earth Society and is actually swallowing the shit that our esteemed Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is dishing out. (Source for Domenech quote).
Glenn Nye’s Seat: From Leans Dem to Toss Up
Writes CQ Politics, “As Nye and his party shift to playing defense in a historically challenging midterm election year, CQ is shifting the rating of the 2nd district race to ‘Tossup’ from ‘Leans Democratic.’”
“[H]is party”?????
Oh, that’s right… I remember now. Nye’s a Democrat, for now. That is until Rep. Eric Cantor gets to him.
CQ says they are making the rating change as heir-apparent Scott Rigell with his personal fortune as a car salesman has muscled his way to the top of the crowded pool of Republican nominees.
“And it will be difficult for Republicans to portray him as a lockstep adherent of Democratic leaders because his voting record is among the least liberal in the House Democratic Caucus. Nye voted for the economic stimulus law but bucked his party on the cap-and-trade climate change bill and a Democratic-written health care bill President Obama recently signed into law”, writes CQ.
Ah… silly CQ has forgotten that Republicans lie. Nye will be painted as a liberal Pelosi Democrat no matter what. That is unless Cantor intervenes, shifts course away from Nye, leaving Rigell dangling on his own.
And wouldn’t it be the ultimate kick in the crotch if Glenn somehow manages to gain back Democratic grassroots support, pulls off a win, and then says “fuck it” and jumps parties.
Things would have been so different for Glenn Nye if he had only bothered to listen to the folks that got him elected in 2008. Oh well…. there’s always Tom Perriello’s race to get excited about!
VB GOP “Leadership”
What zodialogical sign was Glenn Nye born under? Coz damn… the accidental good fortune he keeps getting handed is unbelievable!
“It is disappointing that the former chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party no longer feels he has a home in his own party”, writes 2nd district GOPper candidate Scott Taylor to the news that Kenny Golden has dropped out of the Republican nomination race to face Glenn Nye as an Independent. Way to split the Republican vote, Mr. Golden!
According to Virginia News Source, the charming current chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, Gary Byler, is shitting in his pants. “Unglued? The 2nd District GOP is wrangling with bruised egos, defecting candidates, and a district leadership under internal attack”, they write.
There’s also news that former 2nd district GOPper candidate and former chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party Chuck Smith has carpet-bagged his way to the 3rd district to wrestle his way into being the GOPper nominee blessed with the good fortune of facing Rep. Bobby Scott in November. Bwaaaaa!!!
(Photo credit: Virginia News Source “Unglued! The Republican political way?”)
McDonnell Chisels Deeper Virginia’s Growing Divide
I’ll have to agree with The Shad Plank on this one. “Maybe McDonnell was sick of Ken Cuccinelli getting so many headlines”, they write. Nothing else explains this irresponsible and egotistical move.
Why, oh, why would Governor McDonnell issue a proclamation declaring April “Confederate History Month”? Our country and the Commonwealth are so heated up and intensely divided over health care, energy, and solutions to our ailing economy. We currently sit at a place in time where people are suffering with unemployment, loss of housing, etc., etc. This resolution does nothing more than fan the flames of division and animosity amongst us. Who and what is gained from this resolution?
The Rush to Drill Appears to be Slowed! Doggone Environment, Navy and NASA!
Writes RTD: “Gov. Bob McDonnell and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar discussed the next steps for Virginia offshore exploration and drilling yesterday during a private lunchtime tête-à-tête at the Executive Mansion.
McDonnell, an enthusiastic supporter of offshore oil drilling, asked Salazar to help keep the momentum going now that Virginia has been cleared as the first state on the Atlantic Coast to explore and, depending on what’s found, drill.
“I urged him to do everything possible, since he was managing the process, to keep this on track for late 2011 or sometime in 2012, and he assured me that he would do that,” McDonnell said shortly after the meeting.
Ha! McDonnell now relinquishes to 2012: “2011… or 2012″. How about 2013, 2017, 2024, never…
The more we get to know about Virginia’s coastal environment the less and less likely we are to see any drills. That study will take time and it looks like more and more time will be awarded to the process.
Sorry, Bob. No wonder you look so glum in this RTD photo. (Photo credit: BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH)
What is it with Mayor Sessoms?!?
“It’s just the right cotton-pickin’ thing to do,” said VB Mayor Sessoms. What an idiot! Vivian has details.
Mike “Homosexuality is Immoral” Farris Endorses Scott Rigell
I wonder if GOPper 2nd district candidate Scott Rigell did his homework on this guy Mike Farris before he so gushingly announced his endorsement on Facebook.
Publicly proclaiming that “homosexual behavior is immoral“, this founder of the Home School Legal Defense Fund is a faithful adherent to the “Christian World View of Law“. Not only do these Dominionists believe that homosexuality is immoral, but they want it outlawed as well.
2.6. Sexual Morality
2.6.1. Recognizing in law that monogamous, heterosexual marriage is the only legitimate place for sexual expression and pleasure;
2.6.2. Opposing by law all other forms of sexual relationship and expression—e.g., homosexual and lesbian relationships, bestiality, incest, etc.
So whacked is Farris’ extreme “world view” and the political agenda of HSLDA, that the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers which represents over 85% of the homeschooling community in Virginia that its President is forced to “doing damage control behind HSLDA.” Unlike HSLDA, OVH is an inclusive grassroots advocacy group that provides accurate information and advocacy for ALL homeschoolers.
So this endorsement from this extreme right winger begs a number of questions to candidate Rigell, number 1 of which is his beliefs on homosexuality and number 2 of which is his concerns for the 85% of Virginia’s homeschooling community not under Farris’ control and domination.
Virginia Beach ala Louisiana
“If there’s going to be money made from drilling for gas, I want the city of Virginia Beach to benefit, period,” said Mayor Will Sessoms.
How exactly is Virginia Beach making money from drilling?
The Feds don’t allow for revenue sharing with coastal states, and if they did, Virginia wouldn’t spend it on roads in Virginia Beach. The limited number of jobs on rigs would be filled by workers from all over the U.S. Most offshore oil rig jobs call for a 14/21 day rotation, meaning working for 14 days and having 21 days off. This equates to having approximately 3/5 of the year off. For this reason, workers would not have to relocate their families and otherwise disrupt their lives to work on Virginia’s offshore rigs, opting to simply fly in from the Gulf Coast for the handful of times they are needed to work off Virginia’s shores.
Yet the visions of “jobs, jobs, jobs” dancing around Sessoms’ head remains as put there by Gov. Bob McDonnell. “This is the City Council showing support for the governor”, said Sessoms like any good lap dog.
Meanwhile, McDonnell has based his “jobs, jobs, jobs” song-and-dance entirely on a 2005 “report” by Dr. James V. Koch, local celebrity economist and former ODU president. Writes Dr. Koch in an email to me: “First, this really doesn’t qualify as a report. Indeed, I don’t even have a copy. I was given about 48 hours to produce a very quick estimate of the economic benefits (jobs, income, taxes) that might be generated by drilling off shore. Since I had no Virginia data, and no time to produce any, I looked at what had happened previously in Louisiana and a Canadian province as a guide. I did not have time to take environmental costs, etc., into account. I do not list this work on my C.V. because I did not invest the considerable time and attention that I give to the many economic impact studies that I do”.
To the right is a zoning map of Virginia Beach. The Louisiana that Dr. Koch looked to for modeling his economic projections is the one pictured above and below as riddled with green boxes, red circles and a myriad of grey lines. (The grey lines are pipelines; the red lines are pipelines damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.) With visions of those thousands of jobs and millions in revenue, Virginia Beach would have to be similarly riddled.
This is what Mayor Sessoms’ envisions off Virginia Beach?!? What a pawn!
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